


swimming in an endless sea of stardust

by familiarfawn



Category: Pokemon Fan Games, Pokemon Reborn
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:22:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 54,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27922978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/familiarfawn/pseuds/familiarfawn
Summary: Astraea had plans. They weren't necessarily going to catapult her into fame and fortune, but they were well-thought-out and they weren't going to kill her.A train crash was not in her plans. Neither were the rippling effects of that crash on the region as a whole, on her plans as a whole.But if there was one thing Astraea had always been bad at, it was sitting there and taking whatever hand the universe dealt her.
Relationships: (eventually), Taka Alcantara/Original Female Character
Comments: 26
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! thank you for taking the time to read this <3
> 
> there's some quick notes re: the tags/the fic in general down at the end of the chapter! they're not world-shakingly important or anything, but they're there.

When Astraea’s family had left the station, Natalya had hung back to ask, one last time, if Astraea was sure she’d be okay. The question had been for Natalya’s benefit more than Astraea’s, so she’d said yes without hesitating.

Three hours later, with the walls shielding Reborn City from Tourmaline Desert visible out the train’s window, Astraea was finally as confident in the yes as she’d expressed before.

In an effort to keep from making herself nauseous by watching the peaks and valleys of Tourmaline pass by, she had wasted time by observing the conversation on her battling club’s chat server. It was familiar names predicting familiar matchups and familiar outcomes and familiar prizes, with the only complication to consider being the exclusion of Astraea’s name from the roster.

She didn’t bother to contribute to the discussion. There were things she could already feel herself missing from Pyrite, but, surprisingly, the club wasn’t one of them. Newer, maybe better, things were waiting for her in Reborn and, somewhere in between the two train stations, that had grown too exciting for her to care much about what she was leaving behind.

There was a knock at the door of the train compartment Astraea was occupying. As it slid open, she shifted so one leg was laid across the rest of her bench, not looking up from her phone.

“Hi!” Out of the corner of her eye, Astraea took in the woman standing in her compartment’s door. She was probably a few years older than Astraea, with silver hair and a gold bracelet encircling her wrist. “You’re one of the people approved for the Reborn League, right?”

Astraea nodded warily, dreading having to shoo off an over-friendly fellow trainer.

“I’m Ame, I’m the league’s manager. I’m coming back from some business in Phenac, so I figured I’d get a head start on introductions and verifying registration with you guys.”

 _Oh._ Well, that was fine. “Here.” She shifted and pulled her bag off the opposing bench.

“Thanks. Feels like everyone on the train is signing up,” Ame said, taking the newly open seat. “Which is great! I’m glad that things are finally getting off the ground for real. The past decade or so was… rough.”

“I know the broad strokes.”

“Right. You’re Astraea, aren’t you? You’re actually from Orre, not just taking the train in from there.”

Astraea nodded, attempting to dig through her bag without being overtly rude.

“I swear, I just talked to three people in a row from Kalos who didn’t seem to understand how bad things in Reborn used to be. Hopefully, though, the league will continue to be a huge draw for people to come back into the region. Took about two years to get here.”

“Yeah. You want this, right?” Astraea pulled her hand out of her bag and presented Ame with her passport.

“Of course. Let’s see…” Ame took her phone out of her pocket and scrolled on the screen. “Astraea Meraz… Twenty, from Pyrite, Orre… Okay, all good!”

Astraea retrieved her passport and slipped it back into her bag. “Thanks. And Rae’ll work just fine.”

“Rae it is, then. When we pull into the station in a minute, just come with me to the Grand Hall and we’ll get you the pokémon you were promised. Sound good?”

Astraea started to give a polite reply, but paused when Ame’s eyes widened.

“Um.” She was looking somewhere past Astraea. “What is—”

Twisting around, Astraea caught the slightest glimpse of a hazy black figure that instantly vanished. “Think someone’s ghost got out of their Poké Ball?” It seemed too large, but she hadn’t gotten that good of a look… The sudden chill that ran through her body tracked for a ghost passing against her, though, and the feeling wasn’t going away. She moved over on the bench, trying to escape the cold, but it followed.

“Something’s not right,” Ame said. She was standing, staring out the window.

“What?”

“We’re about to pass into the city. Shouldn’t we be deaccelerating already?”

Astraea turned her head, just in time to see the desert view give way to buildings passing way too fast. “Oh _shit_ —” She scrambled out of her seat, eyes fixed on the glass. The ice stayed with her, coalescing into a ball in her chest.

“Move, move, _move_!” Ame shouted over a sudden screech of metal and the sound of breaking glass.

Astraea felt Ame’s hand grip her arm.

The world tinted gold, then blacked out.

• • •

Her hearing came back first as an overwhelming, high-pitched ringing.

“—y! —re you—”

Dazed, Astraea pushed herself off the ground, right side pulsing in dull pain. Thick smoke and grit laced through the air, making deep breaths a challenge. The frost was gone from her chest, but the half-panicked feeling replacing it was not an improvement.

Ame was rising to her feet a bit away. A woman with long lime-green hair was significantly closer, crouched down beside Astraea.

“You’re okay!” Mystery Woman said, too exuberantly.

Astraea finished standing.

Slowly, the ringing was starting to vanish.

“Well, that was an experience I would like to not relive,” Astraea managed to say to Ame, stepping past the other woman and over a discarded wooden slab. Glass crunched under the sole of her boot.

“Are you alright?” Ame asked, reaching out to place a hand on Astraea’s arm.

“No real damage.” She pulled her arm away and tucked it behind her back. “…I think. I’ll get back to you in, like, an hour.”

“There’s no way all this damage is just from the train crashing into Grandview,” Ame said, seemingly around Astraea rather than to her. “Everything’s in too many pieces… It looks like some kind of explosion was set off as the train was coming in.”

“Definitely sounded like it!” the other woman said, springing to her feet and nimbly avoiding the sharp debris littered around her. “One moment I’m walking to meet you, the next, _boom_!”

Astraea had already forgotten the woman existed.

In fact, the world was swimming a bit. The broken walls of the train station looked fuzzy, except for the daggers of glass lining the edges of a gap in the bricks.  


Just minutes before, it must have been a window.

“Rae?” Ame reached out again.

Astraea pulled back. “I’m _fine_.”

She hadn’t impaled herself on a stray glass shard, had she? Or—concussion? Was that plausible? Had she actually been unconscious, or—

Oh, the other woman was talking.

“Wait, what did you say?” Astraea interjected, vaguely waving a hand in her direction.

“My name’s Julia.”

“…Okay.” Her bag was… not with her. Gone, then. No way anything was being retrieved intact from the still-smoking wreckage around her. “So, uh, what’re we doing here? Well, you,” Astraea said, addressing Ame again. It wasn’t eloquent, but Ame seemed to grasp her intent.

“Well, based on the timing, there’s a very good chance this was deliberate. I need to make sure the police lock down the area to look for a possible suspect.” Ame fingered a Poké Ball clipped to her waist as she spoke. “And, while I doubt anyone else on board survived that, there were people inside the station that might have. I’d like to be here while they search.” She glanced toward the concrete and bricks. “If you’re sure you’re not hurt, you should head toward the Grand Hall. There’s supposed to be another trainer there—her name’s Victoria—who should be able to show you around a bit until I can get down there. I’ll make sure you at least get your pokémon tonight, that way you’re not stuck here defenseless.”

“That works. Take your time here if you need to.”

“I’ll catch up with you later, then.” With a last glance behind Astraea, not at her, Ame walked away, toward a group of police officers just arriving on scene.

 _Okay. Grand Hall._ Astraea started off in a direction. Any direction.

“Wait! Do you even know where you’re going?” Julia was trailing after her.

“Are you even supposed to be here?” Astraea asked back. Julia obviously hadn’t been inside the train station and was dressed spectacularly unwell to be traipsing around a crash site. The skirt and thin tights were not exactly inspiring confidence in her disaster scene handling.

“Of course! I’m a gym leader.”

“Yeah, that makes sense."

“The electric gym leader, if we want to be exact.”

“That tracks too. You’re very bouncy.” Especially for what was, ultimately, the scene of several deaths.

She nodded, taking another few steps forward. “You need to head down this street, take the first left, and then head straight. The Grand Hall’s huge, it’s hard to miss. Bunch of big steps leading up to it!”

“Okay.” Astraea wandered away again and—

“Hey, I didn’t catch your name!”

She didn’t bother stopping this time. “Does that matter?”

“Yeah. If you’re getting a pokémon from Ame, you’re challenging the league. Which means I’m probably the first gym leader you’ll face!”

“Oh, huh. Alright.” She turned around, walking backwards and trying not to trip over her own feet. “I’ll make sure to drop by and talk sometime _after_ the world stops spinning from a near-death experience.”

“Good point.”

“And I do not need you to walk me three blocks, but thanks for subtly trying to. Points off for not actually being subtle about it, though.”

“Fine! I guess if you haven’t fallen over yet, you’re probably okay. But if Ame asks, I walked you all the way.” Julia turned and started back toward the rubble. After a few steps, she paused. “Hey, seriously, swing by my gym at some point. At the least, I could let you know what ends up happening with all of this.”

“Okay. See you around. Maybe.”

• • •

She reached up to brush wood splinters off her jacket. Again. One pricked her finger.

So, that was probably a good way to get a tiny shard of glass embedded in her hand. And that definitely should have occurred to her somewhere along the past block or so.

The black smudges on her jacket stood out against the wine-red fabric, but a brief inspection had revealed no tears. She’d need a new bag, a few outfit changes, a motel room—Gods, her passport. She needed another one.

Or a trainer card. That would be okay for a few days.

Her hand went to her pocket. Her wallet was still there, so her cards and money would be too.

Glancing down, she caught sight of a rip in her jeans that hadn’t been there when she’d purchased them. It didn’t feel like she was bleeding, maybe the fabric had just gotten caught, but things were shaky, so who could tell?

The further she got from the smog and sirens, the more the adrenaline wore off. If she were _really_ hurt somewhere, it’d become excruciatingly clear in a few minutes.

Wait, her phone? Was—Yes, still there.

Astraea pulled it out of her jacket pocket and turned on the screen. She scrolled past her sisters’ numbers in her contacts, until she found her dad’s.

_Hey, are you home from work? Need to talk to you._

She hit the send button and almost immediately a notification flashed onto the screen: “Message Undelivered: No Connection.”

What? No, that wasn’t—She had a signal. Her phone had a signal. There were two little black dots near the top of the screen, sure, but there were three little white dots too. That was enough for a signal.

She tried again. Then tried Natalya. Then Cahira. None of the messages would go through. She pulled up her battling club’s server, only to find it grayed out with a “lost connection” notification. The last messages under the pop-up were from before the train crash.

“Are you _fucking_ kidding me,” she spat down at the screen, garnering a concerned look from someone in a hurry to go stare at the Grandview Station ruins.

Gods, there were a lot of people around. She hadn’t noticed before. They’d probably been drawn outdoors by the sound of the crash.

• • •

Massive building. Large, worn stone steps. Somehow, she’d made it to the Grand Hall.

Emblazoned on the doors was a stylized version of the Reborn League’s logo: blue and red bars on the top, green and purple bars on the bottom. Wrapped around the building’s dome was the regular version of the design, where the two-toned bars were arranged in a “x” formation. It had been branded across every website and piece of promotional literature Astraea had set eyes on.

Time to find Victoria.

Also, a mirror.

Astraea had to be careful not to trip on the cracked stairs. Some were fractured into large chunks, others had thin scars resembling Lichtenberg figures. Very few of the stones were unmarred. It certainly fit with the broken station behind her and the chain-link fences lining the entrance into the city ward visible from the steps.

A pokémon would be nice to have around, actually. Especially with her phone out of commission.

Maybe it’d gotten fucked in the crash?

Astraea ran straight into another person as she tried to enter the building, hard enough that pain came soaring into her right side.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention at all.” The young woman she’d run into had black hair falling out of a messy bun and into her face. The phone in her hand was turned on, the screen’s dim glow visible in the evening light.

“It’s alright, I wasn’t looking that well either,” Astraea managed to reply after a second, then moved past her into the building.

“Oh, wait, wait, wait!” The woman reached back to stop her, fingertips just brushing Astraea’s jacket. “You’re Astraea, right? I’m Victoria.”

“That’s me.”

“Ame said to look for blonde hair, red jacket, and an Orresian accent.”

“Great, then I have a question. Why is your phone working and mine is very much not?”

“Obvious answer: train crash.”

“Well, yeah, but it’s not… It’s intact, y’know? The screen works. Everything works. It just won’t send anything. Says there’s no connection, but also says it has a signal.”

“Then I don’t know. I’m not a huge technology person.”

What use was she for then? “It’s fine. Thanks anyways.” Astraea stepped through the doors into the bright lighting, turning back to fiddling with her phone.

“Oh, so there’s a Poké Mart built into the building on that side—”

“Hold up, do you know how long Ame’s going to be?”

“She said it’d take an hour or two.”

“Okay. Then I don’t need a Poké Mart. I need an actual store and very cheap fast food. Ideas?” Astraea turned back to face Victoria, bumping into a lobby chair as she took an extra step backward. “Don’t feel like you have to come if you’ve got other stuff to do, I can find my own way if I’m put in the right direction.”

“I’ll come. I’m waiting on Ame for a pokémon too. We can go up into Obsidia, there’s a bunch of shops there that aren’t far, in case Ame comes back early.”

“Would love access to a mirror, also.”

“Bathrooms are past the Poké Mart. They’re not floor-length though, if that’s what you’re after.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll be back in a second.” Astraea turned away from Victoria, side-stepping the cheap plastic chair and heading off in search of the bathroom.

She really didn’t need a tag-along. Yes, it would be nice to not stumble around lost in an unfamiliar city. A map was preferable to a living, breathing, _talking_ human, though.

She was sore, and tired, and the building was too loud, and her ears were still producing a dull buzz. She wanted to be alone. Alone in a hotel room or alone in a crowd, either would be fine. Just… alone.

• • •

Astraea shoved open the door to the women’s bathroom, accidentally smacking it against a poorly placed trashcan.

There was shitty elevator music playing over a tinny speaker. But there was no one there.

A glance in the mirror revealed that Astraea didn’t look as torn up as she had suspected. Her hair was… well, “a mess” was putting it nicely, but she took a few seconds to brush out some of the debris into the sink and then pulled it all back into a bun. Presentable to the general public, even if it would be tangled even worse by the time she could brush it out.

Nothing felt right. Her face and the sink’s tile were too sharply detailed, the stall doors behind her were too blurred. Blinking wasn’t doing much to help the world focus again, either.

Gently running a hand across her face didn’t reveal any forming bruises. That _really_ didn’t make sense. She had to have hit her head at some point, right? But there were no real signs of a concussion, she wasn’t bleeding…

She needed to just be grateful for that.

Some eyeliner and mascara was smeared under her right eye. Astraea pulled paper towels from the nearby roll and dampened them, stumbling over the soap dispenser’s faulty motion sensor, then wiped the makeup away from both her eyes and gently rinsed them. The paper towel was rough against her skin, but it was worth looking even slightly better.

She’d need to buy new cosmetics, but that would have to wait until another day. Whatever hotel she ended up at would have shampoo and conditioner—bad ones, but they’d be there, which was enough. Buying a hairbrush was imperative, though.

Pants… There’d been a rip. Astraea pushed herself up onto the ceramic counter, ignoring the pain in her right arm when she hit it against the edge. If someone wandered into the restroom while she was perched there, well, screw them, and besides, they’d probably seen people doing stranger things.

Examining her leg, she could see a bit of blood under the fabric below the tear. It didn’t hurt too much, she wasn’t leaving a trail of red in her wake, and Astraea wasn’t about to mess with fixing it in a public restroom of dubious quality, so she dropped her leg and turned to her arm.

Still sitting on the counter, she removed her jacket and winced at the sight she was met with. There was a nasty bruise already darkening across most of her forearm, presumably from where she’d landed coming out of the train.

It was a sheer miracle either she or Ame had survived the crash, much less both of them. Astraea had no hope for anyone else.

She lifted her shirt, twisting to see her right side in the mirror. There was a scrape along her hip and another, lesser bruise starting on her ribs. That explained that. Astraea pulled her shirt back down and tugged her jacket back on to cover the bruise on her arm.

As a last check, she hopped off the counter and placed her right palm flat on it, then put as much weight as she could on her arm. No unbearable spike in pain. No broken bones. It really was just a nasty bruise.

Eyes trained on her reflection in the mirror glass, she smiled to herself.

She should be hurt much, much worse than she actually was. She should be dead, realistically.

But she wasn’t.

If the station was truly destroyed, though, she had no way out. And it had been, she was sure of that. With how close she and Ame had been to the street, the train had to have torn through at least one of the station walls before all was said and done.

Right?

She couldn’t remember it, but it had to have happened, right?

Regardless, her tentative commitment, specifically designed to be reversible, had suddenly turned into a permanent one.

Well, until the train station was rebuilt. But given that Reborn had as bad an infrastructure system as her own region, that wouldn’t be soon.

Reborn wasn’t stable enough yet for proper airline systems to start back up. The north ascended into mountains no one in their right mind wanted to pass through. The east was untamed wilds in the exact opposite direction of where she needed to be. The south was a non-functional ocean, with most of the ports shut down due to trashy water quality and trashy economic viability alike. Directly between her and home was a desert too large to comfortably cross on her own, at least not without fear of being caught in a sandstorm too vicious to survive.

She was fine, though. Every one of her injuries would heal. She would have a pokémon before the night was out and, with them, the means to competently make money. It could be so much worse.

Besides, she’d been handling herself for a long time and she would handle herself here just as well as she had at home.

Except—

Her _fucking_ phone. Those were _expensive_ and gods knew the train crash was going to be on the news back in Pyrite by morning, considering the train had come out of Phenac, right next door, and her father and her sisters would be worried sick and she had no way to tell them she was okay, she was _alive_ , and she _couldn’t_ do that to them—

_Breathe._

She was breathing. She was fine. Astraea splashed water across her face, disregarding the remaining makeup, and blotted away the water as gently as she could. The world hadn’t ended, and it wouldn’t any time soon. She would figure something out. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

And even if she couldn’t talk to them for a while, the least she owed her family was taking care of herself until she could.

…Victoria was still waiting on her. She was taking too long.

As she exited the restroom, the door bounced off the same trashcan it had upon entry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi again! i've been working on this (admittedly stupidly long) fic on-and-off since... late dec 2019/jan 2020? somewhere in there. it's not 100% prewritten, not even close, but it's been a year and i'm not feeling like i'm gonna burn out on it any time soon, so it felt safe to post. 
> 
> no guarantees on an update schedule, especially once i get past the prewritten parts, but i'm aiming for every friday. maybe every other friday? even though it's a sunday now. also, starting off with 3 chapters 'cause that's how long it takes to get out of the grand hall.
> 
> anyway, some notes on tags/fic scope, if anyone's interested--  
> 
> 
>   * "canon divergence" is mostly in little things (details of events changing, that i'm 95% not lifting dialogue out of game but creating whole conversations that sometimes won't have canon roots, some personality alterations to fit what i want) up until after corey's death. then there's going to be some pretty heavy timeline alterations/event restructuring for that section of the game, and a few other sections too. ...but, honestly, outside of one, maybe two, big changes, a lot of the event's outcomes are going to stay generally the same. at least for e18, no promises on e19 yet.
>   * the relationship tag is obviously not relevant yet, but it's there so people know what they're getting into, and also i might forget to add it when i get to that point otherwise lol. this is super not a romance-focused fic tho.
>   * idk what the line between teen and mature is re: violence, and at this point in life, i'm not gonna learn. so i'm just playing on the safe side ig.
>   * also, up to julia's gym is 10 chapters/40k+ words. this thing is looong. mostly including this bc i like to know how long an unfinished fic is supposed to end up being, and i figure others might as well, but i don't have a chapter count to provide, only that stat.
> 



	2. Chapter 2

It took multiple minutes for Astraea to find Victoria again. She blended in too well with the rest of the people in the Grand Hall and the only identifying detail Astraea had picked up on was “black hair in bun,” which applied to at least five others in the open lobby.

Eventually, Astraea found her still standing by the entrance, near the built-in Pokémon Center. She was wearing a gray windbreaker and loose black shorts. Astraea could remember that. In fact, upon closer inspection, the windbreaker had Victoria’s name embroidered on the front right side, which was pretty much a dead giveaway.

She should have noticed that before.

“You look better,” Victoria said, then seemed to realize how it sounded and hurried to add, “Not that you looked bad before!”

“Oh, no, I did. Changing the hair does wonders.” She pointed to her bun and forced a tight-lipped smile. “C’mon, I’d prefer to be done quick.” 

“Right, let’s go then. What are you looking for first?”

“Either a cheap department store, or, um… a supermarket,” she replied, blanking momentarily on the right word. She ran a hand across the top of her hair and smiled again, making it more natural this time. “I just want to grab a couple of things.” 

“We can do that.”

There was really no “we” about it, in Astraea’s opinion, but she followed Victoria out of the Grand Hall regardless. They headed left, up the bridge that surrounded the building on three sides and into the city ward opposite the one containing the remnants of the station. 

It was much quieter. Prettier, too, even if the lake water still looked like it’d been the victim of an oil spill. Traces of faded green and blue paint were visible on the sidewalk tiles. 

Her arm was actively throbbing. 

That probably meant the adrenaline had completely worn off. 

Victoria had called the ward… Obsidia. A solid chunk of the signs Astraea’s eyes drifted across were written in Unovan and Orresian alike, though nearly all the words she happened to catch from conversations on the street were Unovan. Once or twice, muffled speech that could have been either Kalosian or Orresian. 

People coated the sidewalks and streets, even with the sun nearly gone.

The air quality felt as bad as, if not worse than, the depths of Pyrite, which was overrun with trucks headed to and from industrial sites. But there were almost no vehicles on the streets in Obsidia, and it seemed like it’d be horrid to try and navigate one through the area. 

There were no signs, near benches or otherwise, that denoted bus stops and Astraea was nearly certain she’d read Reborn’s subway system was still out of commission. It was a good thing she was already used to walking everywhere.

• • •

Victoria brought her to a store only a few blocks from the Grand Hall. “This is probably what you’re looking for.” The doors slid open automatically, letting a rush of cold air out into the street. “If you don’t mind, I need to grab a few things as well, so maybe we could split up and meet back at the registers in, say, thirty minutes? I haven’t been here in a few years, so we’ll both be searching to find things either way.” 

Astraea could see a clothing section off on the right side, which was all she needed. “Sounds good. It’ll save time, at least.” 

Victoria headed toward the left side of the store, leaving Astraea alone once again. She went straight for the clothing, hoping that bags would be somewhere nearby. Sure, she needed clothes, but a bag was equally pressing, given that she didn’t know how often she’d be moving around. 

At some point, her ears had completely stopped ringing. No permanent hearing damage. 

There was a section of bags, ranging from tiny wallets to hiking packs, situated in a corner. Finding one with PC compatibility was a necessity. She wouldn’t have much for a while, but the thought of installing something that complex herself made her head spin, and she wasn’t going to buy yet another bag once she owned things again.

Really, her damn bag was the worst thing to have lost in the crash. She was unattached to most of the things that had been inside, and nearly everything could be replaced without too much trouble, but the bag itself was easily one of the most expensive things she’d ever owned. It was disappointing that she’d have to downgrade. 

Toward the middle of the section was a circular display filled with bags “designed for on-the-go trainers!” Amidst some spectacularly impractical designs, there were a few larger ones with wireless attachments pre-installed. 

After several minutes of scanning tags and shifting re-branded purses out of the way, Astraea settled on a decently durable brown pack. It probably wasn’t perfect. She was having a hard time getting herself to focus on the details listed on the tag and her options were limited. But it was big, and she liked the color.

Walking away from the display, an aisle on the left, full of camping gear, caught her eye. She headed across the linoleum tile, dodging a person with a full basket, and put herself in front of a shelf adorned with knives. _Defenseless without a pokémon, my ass._ She scanned over her options, eventually landing on one that was similar enough to the one she’d just lost. She had to stand on her toes to swipe it off the shelf. 

A knife, an empty bag, and a broken phone. _Truly_ the main essentials to surviving in an unfamiliar city. At least now she could threaten to stab anyone who got too close. 

Astraea promptly headed back to the clothing racks and found the cheapest, plainest things she could. Tomorrow, she would track down a thrift store and start building up a proper wardrobe again. All she needed in the moment was enough to live through the night. 

On the other side of the store, she found the rest of the basics. It was only a handful of items, but they felt like more than enough. 

She made it halfway to the registers before realizing what she had forgotten. Two elastic bandages, one to compress her arm and one to deal with her leg, and a pack of gauze. As she tracked them down and pulled them off the shelves, she added “first-aid supplies” to her mental list of necessary purchases. She hadn’t had any in her lost bag, but evidently she was going to need them. 

• • •

No line at checkout. 

Astraea dumped her scanned items into her newly acquired bag instead of wasting one of the paper ones hanging next to the counter. She refused to look at the final purchase price, instead just inserting her credit card into the chip reader and waiting for the machine to spit out a receipt she could complain about later.

She’d saved money for the trip. But to fill in the gaps in her income as she settled into the region. Not to do that and rebuy an entire life. 

With Victoria nowhere in sight, she headed back to the font of the store and sat down on one of the benches. To give herself something to focus on, she fiddled with ripping the tag off her bag by hand. The plastic bit into her palm in protest, but that barely mattered in the grand scheme of things. 

Once the zip tie was broken, she pulled out her phone. Most things were working on it. Almost everything, in fact. Streaming services played music and videos. Her notes app was functional and as cluttered as ever. The little gacha games Cahira had installed lagged but loaded. The chat server and her regular messaging were the only things apparently down, which was infinitely more frustrating than if the entire thing was fucked.

It couldn’t just be whatever piece controlled the connection, because everything else was working, which meant the problem was out of Astraea’s ability to fix on her own. Which meant taking the time to track down a reputable repairman that didn’t insanely upcharge, then going without a phone for however long it took to fix. 

Which meant she had to have her life vaguely in order before she could fix it. 

Infinitely more frustrating, indeed.

She clicked the screen off and put it down. Victoria was still missing in action. She turned to watching the store’s patrons as they went about their business. 

There was a lady quietly scolding her child, with clunky stones around her neck and wrists. Astraea couldn’t decipher from a distance if it was cheap costume jewelry or real. A teenager almost knocked over a full display as he animatedly talked to his friends; he was visibly relieved when the entire thing didn’t come crumbling down on top of him. A man near the ATM—

Wait, the ATM.

Astraea scrambled off the bench, ungracefully slinging her bag over one shoulder and removing her wallet from her jacket pocket as she hurried to the presently unoccupied machine. 

Here was the thing about her situation: Sure, there’d be a public phone, somewhere, that someone had taken the initiative to reconnect as the city came back to life, that probably could make interregional calls. Sure, she could track it down and use it to leave a message for her father. It just sure wouldn’t be safe or practical to do so that night, when she needed it the most.

What _was_ safe and practical was taking a small amount of cash out of her bank account. Which, due to how often the two of them passed money back and forth to cover a bill or buy Cahira things, was linked to her father’s. Luckily, the man checked his bank account almost _every_ morning for some reason Astraea still didn’t comprehend, and hers popped up right below his own.

It was quite possibly the least elegant situation in the world.

It was a solution, though.

Sort of? 

There was an eighty five percent chance he’d notice. And when she finally got proper access to a computer somewhere, probably tomorrow morning, she could put money directly in his account, and make it a hundred percent. He’d probably see it around the same time he thought to tune into the news, and she’d calmed down enough to realize that they’d mention some people survived the crash.

Astraea took twenty dollars out of the ATM and returned to her bench.

Shortly after, Victoria found her. A small bag hung from her hand. “Find everything?”

“Yeah,” Astraea replied, stopping just short of saying _I bought a knife!_ out loud. 

“Good,” Victoria said. “We should head back to the Grand Hall then. There’s a mini food-court thing on the second floor that I think meets the qualification of ‘bad fast food’ extremely well.”

“Perfect.” Astraea stood up, pulling her bag back onto her shoulder.

• • •

“Stairs to the right,” Victoria said when the lights of the Grand Hall hit them once again. “The way up is not obvious, but if you’ve been here a couple of times, you know where it is. I’ve been thinking they could use a bigger sign or something.”

“That might help things out a little,” Astraea said as Victoria pulled open a non-descript gray door. “I think maybe a not dark and ominous staircase might help too? Like, just an extra lightbulb or three?”

Victoria laughed and exited out onto the second floor. She held the door open for Astraea. “You start to think of it as part of the place’s charm after a while.” 

“I don’t mind it; it just seems like a pretty stark contrast.” She glanced around. “Wow, there’s actually a few options here. I was expecting something a little sparser.”

“The space needed to be used for something, right?”

“I guess. One question, though. Why is the administrative building for the city functioning as a community center?” 

“I don’t know specifically, but they’ve done a lot of combining things inside the city to conserve space and keep things running. The new power plant’s doubling as a gym, too, I _think_ to help make back the cost of getting it built in the first place, since the old one isn’t usable anymore.” Victoria paused long enough for it to click in Astraea’s mind that the power plant was likely Julia’s gym site. “They did a bunch of renovations on the Grand Hall recently, and it’s not like there’s enough staff right now for the whole building to be taken up by government workers… Not to mention there’s no space to build an extra building around the area without doing a lot of extra work.” 

“Sounds like you do actually know,” Astraea said as she considered her options. 

“I just know a couple of people who are involved with the league, but not really the city projects. I haven’t actually lived in Reborn since I was a kid. It’s been nice to come into the city every few months and see the improvements, though.”

“You live nearby, then?”

“I’ve been studying at an academy a few hours outside the city for a while now. My mentor said it’d be a good idea to try out the league, so here I am! What about you?” Victoria was following her to her chosen line. 

Astraea resisted the urge to just not answer and blow past her with another question. “Orre doesn’t really have a formal league. This is the closest thing.” Short and sweet, because she was decidedly not making conversation to have to answer questions coherently.

“I’ve always found that kind of weird. Given that parts of Reborn used to be part of Orre and we have a league…” Victoria gestured with her right hand. 

“A league that dissolved for a decade thanks to the entire region being centered around corporations and one huge city that nearly went belly-up in a series of natural disasters. No offense, but I don’t know if that’s a great model to imitate.” 

“None taken. Especially given the introduction you got.” 

Astraea laughed bitterly. “Yeah, terrific start, huh?”

Gods, her arm still hurt. Her head was starting, too. 

That was not a good sign. 


	3. Chapter 3

It took Ame nearly an hour to return. In the interim, Astraea stared at the gray wall near her and Victoria’s table, repeatedly tracing the paint imperfections and occasional child’s crayon scribble in her mind. What she wanted to do was pace, or run, or anything that that let her move, but Victoria was still right there and Astraea was frozen as a result.

When Ame finally appeared on the second floor and Victoria sprang up to meet her, it was a welcome breath of air. Astraea stood, carefully pushed her chair under the table, and walked to where Ame and Victoria were already speaking. 

“You really do look okay,” Ame said to Astraea. 

“I am.” There was the whole thing with her arm happening still, but, hey, “what doesn’t kill you,” right? She’d be fine in a week or two. 

“Good.” Ame paused, biting her lip. “The police detained someone, so there’s a chance we’ll have information soon. Now, let’s get you both your pokémon and finish up registration so you guys can get out of here before it’s too late.” As the three of them walked toward the stairwell, Ame turned to Victoria. “I’m letting Rae pick first, by the way, since she’s the one who actually gets a pokémon according to the rules, and you’re only getting one because I’m making an exception on Kiki’s behalf.” 

“I figured it’d be something like that. Don’t worry, I don’t mind at all.” 

They descended back down the stairwell and Ame led them up to the staff desks in the back of the building. “Mind waiting, Victoria?” Ame asked as she pushed open the barrier preventing the general public from getting behind the counter and gestured Astraea through. 

“I’ll be here,” Victoria replied.

Ame started up a better-looking set of stairs. “We’re basically just going back to the second floor again, but you get to see the back end of things now.” She led Astraea down a hallway and into one of the rooms on the left. “Okay, here we go.” 

In the room, which had framed posters of years-past cup tournaments and exhibition matches hung along the walls, there was a table filled with Poké Balls seated in holders. Small white cards were stuck on the front of each one, labelled with the pokémon’s common name and specific variation. The Reborn League’s logo was printed on the top right of every card.

“Twenty-four pokémon, all yours to choose from. Grass types are in the holders with green trim, water types in the ones with blue; fire in the ones with red. Take whichever you like and feel free to take your time picking. Though, you seem like the kind of person who already knows which one you’re going to get.”

“Yeah, I do.” Of course she di—

Well—

_No, not really._

She _had_ known, while she was on the train coming in. She was going to pick a froakie. She liked dark types and greninjas were incredibly versatile, able to adapt to any other pokémon she obtained. But… 

After the train?

It was stupid and impractical to be reconsidering, but, so often, water types were cold to the touch. An almost uncomfortable cold, as if she’d just stepped out of a lake and her body was being hit by a sharp breeze. That was less true for a froakie than a pokémon that spent their whole life submerged in water, but it still applied. 

And that wasn’t—

Astraea took her steps toward the table slower than she normally would have, determined to work things out before she had to make her selection. 

It was just… Her father primarily owned fire types and she’d been using his pokémon for years upon years. Those pokémon were always, _always_ warm. Not to the point they burned. Just enough to be a reminder, every time she touched them, that she was alive and present in a world full of so many other things that were vibrant and complex and perfectly imperfect.

And, well…

Astraea picked up the Poké Ball she wanted, taking note of the _Common (Magician)_ , _Female_ , and _One Year Old_ markings on the card. “Fennekin,” she said to Ame, expanding and then minimizing the Poké Ball. 

It was the only logical choice.

She was familiar with how to train the line and psychic types were as enjoyable to work with as dark types, though in a different way. Delphoxes were quick on their paws; obsessive, intelligent creatures that had limitless reservoirs of compassion for those that treated them well. 

“Let’s not keep Victoria waiting, then.” 

Astraea followed Ame back to the first floor, the tiny Poké Ball gripped tight in her hand. She was left alone at the desk, just like Victoria had been. 

It all seemed meaningless. The way the room was designed it was obviously meant to be an _experience_ for eligible trainers, uninterrupted by having multiple bodies in the room or having to replace a pokémon in front of anyone. Only Victoria and Astraea were there, so what was the point in preserving that? Based on what Ame had said to Victoria on the way to the desk, it wasn’t like either of them were the kind of person who typically got a pokémon from the league. 

Maintaining the pretty façade was a waste of everyone’s time. 

• • •

“Hey, you know if Ame’s still around?”

Astraea’s eyes darted toward the speaker. There was no one else near the desks, save for a few staff members farther down, so he had to be talking to her. “Uh, she’s with someone.” She glanced down at her Poké Ball, which she’d been idly tossing up and down, and pocketed it. Deliberately, she turned away and took to staring at the closest wall.

“Oh, right, I forgot she said she was gonna be pretty busy this evening.” She watched out the corner of her eye as he leaned against the counter. “My name’s Cain, how about yours?” 

_Oh dear gods,_ why _are so many people intent on talking?_ “Astraea.”

“Astraea. That’s a pretty name.”

“Yeah, I know.”

She saw as he almost spoke again, then evidently thought better of it. At least he knew how to take a hint. 

She let her eyes actually drift to the wall.

After a few moments, he said, “She’s just supposed to be getting someone a pokémon, right?”

Astraea bit back a long-suffering sigh. “It’s someone she knows. They’re probably having a conversation. Which is a thing people do when they, you know, _know_ each other.” 

“Alright, it’s just a question. I thought she’d be done by now. No need to be shitty,” he replied, so light-heartedly that it set Astraea’s teeth even more on edge.

“I’ve had a shitty day; I’ve earned the right.”

“I’d actually argue that you haven’t, at least not to be like that with me.”

Astraea moved several feet down the counter. She was not going to get in a fight with a stranger, no matter how much she might want to. At his disgruntled, “I’m just saying,” she made a show of rolling her eyes, then removed her damaged phone from her pocket. Met with her own reflection, she repocketed it and crossed her arms, returning to staring at the wall.

“So—”

“Gods, you can’t take a hint,” Astraea said, cutting him off before he could even start. 

While she’d been busy losing herself in paint patterns, he’d crept his way back to her. “I’m just trying to be friendly,” he said.

“I didn’t ask for you to be friendly! And, technically, I’m pretty sure you started off by flirting with me, which is not ‘being friendly.’ Besides, actually looking at you, aren’t you a bit too young for that?”

“You cannot be that much older than me.”

“Mmm, I think I’m old enough.”

He laughed, like it was somehow a joke. “Eh, maybe. So—”

“Look, I am not trying to be rude, but why are you still talking to me?”

“You said you had a bad day,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m just trying to make it less bad… If you really want me to stop talking to you, I will.”

Astraea reached up to push strands of hair behind her ear. She was met with air, having already forgot she’d pulled her hair back earlier. She really did have a headache. Maybe the bun was causing it. Or maybe it was the noise. Or the stress. There were a large number of potential culprits, actually. 

Dropping her hand back to her side, she said, “No, it’s fine.”

His whole face brightened when he smiled. “So, are you registering for the league? I know that’s what Ame was supposed to be doing earlier.”

“Yeah.”

“Getting a pokémon?”

“Already did.” Astraea retrieved her fennekin’s Poké Ball from her pocket, spinning it between two fingers. 

“Sweet. I need to talk to Ame about resi—Well, I thought I’d register with the league. Already got my own pokémon, though.”

Astraea nodded, only half-paying attention. 

“Hey, by the way, you happen to know what was happening at Grandview Station earlier?”

The moment he said it, she felt her grip on the counter behind her tighten involuntarily. 

He was still talking, even though she’d lost track of the words. “—could see the smoke from down in Coral. I didn’t have time to find out before I got here.”

“There may have been a medium-sized explosion,” she said, jaw clenched even as she tried to sound casual. “If you had any travel plans in the next year or so, you might want to cancel them.”

“Oh. Damn.”

“Yeah.” Astraea turned her head back to the wall, hand still pressed tightly against the counter. This was stupid. She was fine. Sure, her arm hurt, and locking it was _not_ helping, and her side was a bit messed up. But she was alive. People were dead, and—

“It’s kinda loud in here. Wanna head outside for a minute?”

“What?”

“Ame can track us down. She doesn’t normally get this sidetracked, there’s probably something going on. I don’t think she’ll mind if we move for a bit.” 

“Oh. Okay.” She followed him across the tiles, toward the doors. “You said your name’s Cain? Right?”

“Yeah. What, you weren’t sure on that?”

“I wasn’t really paying attention at the time.”

“I could tell,” he said, laughing. “It’s fine. It’s totally fine.”

The doors slid open before them and, immediately, the warm night air hit Astraea’s face. The sun was completely gone, though the numerous streetlamps and the full moon provided more than enough light to see. Cain detoured into the grass next to the building. He released a male nidoran onto a patch of clover, then arranged himself on a wooden bench nearby. 

On the sidewalk’s edge, Astraea hesitated, hand hovering over the Poké Ball in her jacket. The quiet was comfortable, punctuated by muffled, far-off conversation and something rustling in the bushes against the building. 

After a moment, she pulled the Poke Ball from her pocket and expanded it. In a burst of data transforming back to raw energy, her fennekin appeared in her arms. She looked up at Astraea with big, round eyes and made a small sound, ears perked up. 

“Hi,” Astraea said quietly. “I’m Rae. It’s nice to meet you.”

Fennekin mewed back up at her and pressed closer into Astraea’s arms. _Good start._ Stroking the top of her head, Astraea walked to Cain and sat down on the bench. 

“Aw, they’re adorable.” He sat up and moved closer to them. 

“Isn’t she?” Astraea let Fennekin down onto the bench and watched as she crossed over to Cain, lightly nuzzling against his arm. 

He pet her as she purred. Soon, his nidoran was at the bench on his hind paws and trying to see Fennekin. “Do you mind?” Cain asked her, gesturing at them. 

“Not at all.” 

He carefully lifted Fennkin down off the bench and placed her next to Nidoran. “Go forth, make friends.”

Nidoran darted back out to the clover patch and, more cautiously, Fennekin followed. As the two started playing together, Astraea settled back on the bench and took the time to properly pay attention to Cain. 

He was _definitely_ younger than her. 

He was leaned forward, hands lightly clasped together, at rest against his ripped jeans, as he watched their pokémon. Somewhere in the flannel jacket and the eyeliner and how easy he smiled, she was reminded of her and her friends when they were fifteen or sixteen. 

And she’d been a bitch to him. 

“You have a name yet?” he asked as Fennekin sent a tiny burst of flame up into the air. “Or are you not the naming type?”

“Mmm, I’ll get there.”

“I’m sure you’ll pick a good one.” Cain shifted back into the position he’d held before, leaning against the armrest and pulling one leg up onto the bench.

Smog from the area clouded the sky, blocking out the constellations Astraea knew by heart. Worthlessly, she tried to find one or two anyways. Maybe if she could get on a roof somewhere, she would be able to see them clearly. Maybe it’d just be the same. 

She rested her head on her uninjured arm, laying against the bench’s other armrest. For the first time in the past few hours, she felt marginally at ease. Watching Fennekin and Nidoran play together, she was having to fight to keep her eyes open. 

She needed to sleep. No detours after she was done with Ame. 

“Hey, Cain?”

“Mhm?”

“You live in the city, yeah? Happen to know any cheap hotels I won’t get robbed at?”

“Oh, for sure. There’s a few that are better than the others. Here—”

“Found her!” Victoria’s voice came from the doorway, loud enough to grab both their attentions. 

Ame emerged onto the sidewalk next to Victoria, the light from the open doors behind them creating a halo. “Hey! Sorry that took so long, we ran into a bit of a problem with—Oh, Cain, I’m so sorry. I completely forgot I told you to come by.”

“Don’t worry about it, Astraea and I made friends. I heard what happened. Are you okay?”

“Surprisingly, yes. Look, there’s less to do for you than for them, and I wouldn’t want to keep you waiting any longer… You two don’t mind, right?”

“Not at all!” Victoria said, even though Astraea did mind quite a bit. 

She kept quiet, though, and soon enough Cain’s nidoran was replaced by a tepig and Cain himself was replaced by Victoria, who situated herself cross-legged on the bench. 

Astraea watched in relative amusement as Fennekin and Victoria’s tepig vocalized and sent bursts of flames at each other across the grass. This time, she kept a proper eye on them. They were more rambunctious than Nidoran and Fennekin had been together and Astraea didn’t want to be even slightly responsible for burnt grass or flowers. 

After a blissfully quiet period of minutes, Cain reemerged from the doors. “Ame said to send you guys in. She’s getting a head start on the paperwork. Personally, I’m gonna hit the road.”

Victoria nodded at Cain as she got up and returned Tepig to their Poké Ball. She headed toward the doors, obviously expecting Astraea to follow. 

More slowly, Astraea picked herself up off the bench and gathered Fennekin in her arms. Once Fennekin was safely in the air, she put her front paws on Astraea’s chest and leaned up to lick her cheek. 

“Here.” Cain was attempting to hand her a folded piece of paper. “You might want this.” It was a printed map, with pieces of some writing in pen visible at one of the creases. “Since you wanted a hotel and all.”

Astraea reached up with her free hand and took it, slipping it into her back pocket. “Thanks.” 

“Not a problem.” He took a few steps backward. “See you around, yeah?” was said with a wink and, when Astraea pointedly rolled her eyes, he just smiled, gave a mock salute, and turned to head down the stairs. 

Astraea returned Fennekin to her Poké Ball as she lost track of him out on the street, before hurrying to catch up with Victoria. The arrived at the front desk near-simultaneously, though Astraea almost bumped into a few people in her rush. 

“Perfect timing. I’m just about finished,” Ame said, looking up from the computer she was seated at. “Here, you both are supposed to get Poké Balls as a little extra.” Five metal slips were dropped into Astraea’s hand. “And,” Ame said to Astraea, “I think you needed another one of these.”

A trainer ID card was passed to her, officially stamped by the Reborn Region. “Thanks.”

“‘Least I could do.”

“Is that it, then?” Victoria asked. “I hate to just bail, but it’s getting really late, and I think it’d be a good idea to head back to Apophyll and tell Kiki what happened with the station in person.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d heard the name, so Astraea took the onus of asking “Who’s Kiki?”

“Oh, I never said! She’s my mentor, at Apophyll Academy. You’ll get to meet her, at some point. She’s the fighting gym leader. Which, Apophyll’s all the way on the other side of the Azurine Sector, so…”

“Go ahead, Victoria,” Ame said. “Be careful on the way, please.”

“I will! Thanks for everything, Ame. And nice to meet you, Astraea.”

“You too.” Once Victoria was out of earshot, Astraea pulled her phone out of her pocket. “So, not to take up more of your time, but, real quick, any guesses as to why my phone is apparently perfectly functional but unable to send or receive messages?”

“That’s what was taking me so long while I was with Victoria.”

Her stomach dropped. She’d been expecting “no, but here’s a good repair shop,” not a sentence that sounded like a prelude to a major problem.

“Apparently, while the city police were distracted by the crash, someone took the opportunity to knock out a good majority of the interregional communications in Azurine. We’re not completely in the dark, but almost all public channels of communication are offline and, no, we’re not sure exactly how long it’ll be until it’s fixed.”

“Oh. That’s cool.”

“Everything in-region should still work and if you head to another sector, out-of-region things will work there. Here, give me your number and I’ll make sure to let you know once we have a better grasp on things. Though it’ll be on the news as well, of course.”

“Yep.” Off muscle memory, she pulled her number up on the screen and showed it to Ame.

“Alright, well, I’m afraid that’s all I’ve got for you. Know where you’re headed?”

“Yep.” _Nope._

“I’ll call you in a few days.”

“Sounds good.” Astraea turned away from the counter and headed back outside, sitting down heavily on the bench in the grass once again. 

After a moment of staring at the barren sky, she released Fennekin from her Poké Ball and into her lap. “Just you and me now, babe,” she said down to her, then retrieved Cain’s map from her pocket and unfolded it. “So, where are we head—Oh, _nice_.”

It wasn’t just one hotel marked on the map. It was four or five. A store or two. A few restaurants, circled. At the bottom of the map, _Cain Larue_ was scrawled in black ink along with a phone number. 

“Nice, nice, nice. This is probably gonna get us through a couple of days. That said, let’s go to the nearest hotel so I can collapse and if it’s too awful, we can move tomorrow.”

Fennekin leapt down off the bench, allowing Astraea to stand up. 

“Okay, we’re going right into… Peridot. Seems straightforward enough. Make sure you stay close, yeah?”

She yipped at Astraea and kept pace with her as she started toward the steps. 

• • •

The hotel was in remarkably good condition for the price. Astraea had been able to take a shower without having to question at anything resembling mold and the hot water had proved to be exactly as soothing as she’d expected, even if it had run out too quickly.

After an hour there, her headache had almost entirely disappeared. She was situated on the bed, clothing from the store on and her hair wet and brushed out, no longer resembling something akin to a rattata nest. Fennekin was curled up on the sheets next to her. She’d already made sure that the window and doors were tightly locked and that nothing seemed amiss in the room.

She was left staring at her trainer ID and her registration details on her phone, ensuring that Ame had gotten the fine-print right. It was, correctly, a Class B license, but she was supposed to be approved for several exceptions in other tiers. There was a mark indicating that on the ID, but she couldn’t find—There it was. She’d missed it scrolling through the website for the first time. 

_Allowed Class A Types: Dark; ghost; psychic_

_Allowed Class S Types: Fire_

_Allowed Class A Pokémon: Cacnea line, cufant line…_

Words were starting to blur on the screen. She would have to check tomorrow to see if the rest was correct. The important things were there, at least. 

She set several alarms on her phone for in the morning, already aware she was going to sleep past the first few no matter how hard she tried, then placed it and her ID on the nightstand. 

“So, I’ve been thinking about what to call you,” she said, in Orresian, as she reached over to turn off the lamp. 

Fennekin’s ears perked up and she turned her head to look at Astraea, eyes gleaming in the dark. It’d been a delightful surprise on the way to the hotel to find that she already understood the language, no doubt thanks to whoever had fostered her in the year prior. Astraea had expected that, even though the lines intelligent enough to really grasp human language came understanding one, she’d have to undertake teaching her Orresian herself. 

“How’s Bast sound?” she asked, slipping under the covers and letting her head rest on the pillows. “You think you’d like being called Bast?”

She yipped in return, something that sounded affirmative.

“Bast it is, then. We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow. Mostly shopping, which I bet you’ll find boring. After that, we can figure out training. For now, though, good night.” 

Astraea closed her eyes. Moments later, she heard shifting next to her, and then, with a sigh, Bast curled up directly against her side.

Even through the sheets, she was warm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and we made it out of the grand hall. thanks for reading! <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> julia talks So Much All The Time, huh?

After the first morning, Astraea took to passing five dollars back and forth with her father as an insufficient reminder that they were both still alive. The news kept saying there was nothing more they could do. Her silent phone agreed.

She busied herself by taking care of the essentials: She shopped. She debated the costs and benefits of hanging clothes in her hotel room’s tiny closet (costs: hangers, emotional toll; benefit: not using her bag’s wireless for everyday items). She debated if the microwave in her room was safe to use or if she should just walk to the full-size Pokémon Center three blocks away every time she wanted to use one (verdict: walk, because she couldn’t be bothered to clean hers out). She found the nearest Orresian neighborhood’s marketplace and spent most of her second day wandering the stalls there.

Lunchtime, day three was the breaking point. There was nothing “essential” left, only absolute abstractness in the weeks stretching before her. The infinite choices, something she’d grasped for with all her might, were suddenly too daunting.

Quietly, she resigned herself to people watching from a bench by her hotel while her thoughts ran in vicious circles.

She needed to challenge a gym leader. When? Would she start with Julia? Electric, ghost, bug, and grass were the first four ranked leaders; she could pick any one of them. No option was more appealing than the others.

She needed multiple pokémon for a genuine league battle, no matter how well Bast performed. Was she going to track down a breeder? For which pokémon? Was she going to rely on pokémon that naturally roamed the streets in Reborn? She didn’t even know which pokémon those were.

She needed to train Bast. Was she going to pay for an arena room? Maybe she could find a tucked away corner that looked good enough? She had to, somewhere. She needed to feel comfortable challenging other trainers to matches.

She needed money.

Everything spiraled down into that. But every time she tried to pull out from the thought, she lost herself in the web.

Eventually, she got up from the bench and started toward Julia’s gym. Julia’s offer for her to stop by was the last solid thing she could grab onto. Besides, it came with the bonus of potential information, which she desperately needed.

The gym site was easy to locate, easier than anything else in the city had been. Lemon yellow was a rare color in Peridot, yet practically the entire power plant was coated in it and the building was big enough that pieces of painted metal could be seen between other structures for blocks. A yard housing parabolic dishes lay to the left of the building, guarded by padlocked fencing and “no trespassing”/“beware of manectric” signs. As Astraea approached, the main doors slid open.

Pink accents framed them, which felt very Julia-like. Astraea’s memory painted her as bright and bubbly in the midst of chaos, the kind of person who yellow and pink actually worked well together on, instead of descending into a cacophonous mess.

She didn’t think they worked that well together on the building, though.

The lobby’s color scheme was toned down, though still _more_ than one would expect from an industrial plant. A receptionist was seated at the desk across the room and she looked up as Astraea entered. “Good afternoon! If you’re here for a gym battle, I’m afraid you’ll probably have to schedule a match for some time next week, though I can check to see.”

“Oh, no, thank you. I’m just here to talk to Julia if she has a minute.”

“Do you have an appointment?” She looked young, probably just out of required schooling.

“It’ll take three minutes. Do you know where she is?” Astraea approached the desk, glancing over the various things hung on the walls.

“Ah, but—”

“I just need directions, thanks. Unless she’s in a meeting, or otherwise occupied, in which case I can come back later.”

“Her office is on the second floor, to the left. But, um, if you give me a name, I can—”

Astraea was already past the desk and on her way to find the stairs. Julia didn’t know her name; there was no good reason to hand it to the girl.

The back side of the first floor appeared to be mostly offices, with the first sign she ran across proclaiming accounting to the right, HR and stairs to the left. The second floor was more of the same, until she was far enough left to find herself overlooking the plant floor. Workers moved about below, between generators and machinery Astraea couldn’t even start to try and name, though she knew her father could have identified more than half if pressed on the matter.

Julia’s office was at the end of the hall. The door was half open and Julia was seated at her desk, twisting her long ponytail with a pen and staring down at paperwork. A standard yamper was curled up on an assortment of pillows and blankets in the corner, sleeping.

Astraea stood in the door and knocked on the frame.

Julia looked up and smiled when she met Astraea’s eyes, a testament to her memory. “Hi! I’d say your name, but you didn’t give it!”

“It’s Rae. Sorry if I’m interrupting something.”

“Not at all! Please come talk to me, this is incredibly boring, and I don’t want to do it.” Julia shoved the papers she’d been looking at against a disorganized stack and tossed her pen on top of it all. “In fact, even if you don’t have that much to say, please just come sit down and I will talk and still not have to do this. Oooh, or, even better,” she said, lacing her hands together and resting her chin on them, “let me buy you lunch so I don’t have to sit in this office until five.”

Astraea smiled, bewildered. She normally wasn’t keen on indefinitely trapping herself in a conversation with a stranger, but given the circumstances… “Well, I won’t turn down free food.”

“Great! I’ve known you for three minutes and I already love you!” Julia rose from her seat, grinning. She grabbed a purse from the top of the filing cabinet behind her and the leash sitting under it, then moved to wake the yamper.

Upon opening their eyes, they immediately caught sight of Astraea and rushed toward her, corkscrew tail waving back and forth wildly. She crouched down to pet them behind the ears as Julia came up from behind and hooked the leash onto their collar.

“This is Hopper,” she said, “named for obvious reasons. He’s a baby and also, like, my entire life right now.”

“He’s adorable. Are you training him?”

“Oh, no! If I were going to use a yamper or a boltund, I think I’d use something other than a standard. Half-lycanroc, probably. I would die to have a second stealth rock setter in my gym rotation.” As Julia continued on, Astraea tucked the information that she had one at all away for future reference. “Hopper got to be a bit too high-maintenance for his last owner, so I took him. He makes for an excellent team mascot!” She waved at someone down on the floor beneath them as they walked back to the stairs. “Okay, do you trust me with the likelihood of you getting food poisoning, or do you want to pick where we’re going?”

“I’ve been blindly guessing for three days; I think trusting you is actually a step up. Lead the way.”

“I know exactly where we’re going then.” At her feet, Hopper was darting back and forth. His paws created little sparks of electricity with every step. “So, what brought you to free me from the most boring part of my job?”

“Well, Ame said she’d call me when she knew more about the station and the communications towers, but she hasn’t. She’s probably busy and, if she is, I wouldn’t want to go bother her. So, I thought maybe you’d know. And also, be not busy.”

“I’m much more willing to abandon my post, at least,” Julia said, stifling laughter. “I do kind of know what’s going on! I mean, they want me to help some with the station, even though I’m much more of a demolitions person than a construction person. No one’s told me the plan, but I went and looked everything over yesterday and, hot damn, whoever pulled that off did a good job! It’s gonna take a while to fix no matter how good the person fixing it is.”

“I figured as much. I do like that we’re apparently complimenting the work of domestic terrorists. …Is that too much of a presumption? It’s gotta be terrorists, right?” Astraea let herself slip into a more upbeat tone to match Julia’s.

“Probably, right? No one’s told me for sure, so don’t take that as concrete, but if people deliberately do that, what else are they going to be? And, yeah, I’m going to compliment them. They knew what they were doing. I couldn’t have done better myself!”

“Hey, good work is good work,” Astraea said.

She remembered complimenting a woman on her necklace as everyone had searched for seats, and now—Now, she thrust the blurry memories of the other people on the train into the back of her mind.

Julia sighed, smile dropping off her face for a second. It quickly sprung back to life as Hopper tried to launch himself at a tailow scrounging around at the base of a tree. She whistled for him to come back, tightening her grip on his leash, as the tailow flew up into the safety of the branches. “The station aside,” she said as Hopper returned to her, “fixing the comm tower will go a lot smoother. Any issue they have, well, at least the building’s still intact! It’s up north in the Beryl Ward and people have already started looking into it. So, we just gotta give it a couple of weeks and hopefully that’ll be up and running again.”

“Good to know,” Astraea replied, relief swamping her. Two weeks and she could see her father’s face, hear Natalya’s voice; help Cahira with her homework. Two weeks was manageable. Two weeks wasn’t going to kill her, not if a train crash hadn’t.

“I’d suggest heading out of the city into another comm tower’s range, but if you don’t have a flier and you don’t know where you’re going it can get pretty convoluted. Probably take at least a week and a half on foot your first time through.” She paused for a moment, twirling her ponytail with her free hand. “There might be a bus line! I think there is, at least. Maybe. It’s probably not good, if we’re being honest…”

“I think I’ll pass on a sketchy bus when the alternative’s only two weeks. But thanks for trying to offer a solution.”

The conversation slowly derailed from there, spiraling off into vague speculation about easy ways to get from Reborn to the next major city that Astraea definitely wouldn’t attempt. Not while she was unable to communicate with the only people who really cared if she died in transit.

Eventually, they ended up at a tiny restaurant sandwiched between a hair salon and a clothing store. Pieces of greenery sprouted from cracks in the faded bricks, the ivy crawling up to obscure the restaurant’s signage. Julia held open the door for a mother herding two young boys and an eevee, then gestured for Astraea to enter before her.

She stepped inside, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets as she glanced around the building. Given people’s casual clothes, it didn’t seem like that fancy of a place, which Astraea preferred. She’d take free food any time it was offered, but she certainly didn’t want anyone spending that much money on her, much less someone she’d known for less than a day. And even if the dining floor was small, it was crowded, a strong indicator that the food would be good no matter the price.

Julia caught the attention of a hostess and soon enough they were seated at a table. Astraea took the chair with its back against the wall as Julia tied the end of Hopper’s leash to a table leg and made sure he was amicably settled at their feet.

Things were silent for only a second before Julia started talking again, apparently incapable of letting the air hang quiet. Astraea was grateful for it. She’d much rather Julia lead the conversation for a bit longer, particularly while it was comprised mostly of small talk.

After a while, food landed in front of Astraea. It actually did turn out good, which she expressed.

“Yeah,” Julia replied. “Peridot may not be the prettiest or the fanciest, but there’s plenty of good places for everything if you know where to look.”

“Pokémon included in that?” Astraea asked, jumping at the chance to steer the conversation somewhere useful.

“Depends on what you mean by good.”

Astraea huffed. “Guess that’s always true. Any chance you could give a primer on the kinds of pokémon that hang out around here? Or breeders?”

“Mmm, breeders are tricky. _Really_ depends on what your priorities are. Mostly, specialty stuff will be up in Lapis or Obsidia,” Julia said, fork hovering in the air. “For wilds, there’s a lot of standard street fare. I’m sure you’ve seen the birds and the bidoof wandering about. But there’s some hidden gems.”

“Like what? I’m looking for fire, psychic; dark, mostly. But I’m open to others.”

“Well, it’s pretty easy to get into the old rail lines, if you’re willing to get dirty, and there’s lots of little nests down there. Woobats, geodudes; the usual. But also magnemite clusters, poochyena dens; some sableye and mawile near the back. You can find their gem hordes if you go deep enough into the service tunnels!” Julia’s smile widened. “I could show you sometime, if you wanted.”

“Sableye definitely sounds interesting. I mean, they’re little terrors even when left to their own devices. There’s a few that live in some off-road spots back home. Always fun to accidentally disturb one in the middle of the night.”

“Oh, believe me, been there, done that. Was not good.” She reached down to pass a small bit of her meal to Hopper. “Where are you from?”

“Pyrite.”

“I’ve never been, but I’ve heard it’s great!”

Astraea cast her eyes down to her plate, trying to hide her instinctive smile. “It’s pretty good, for the right kind of person.”

“I hear a lot about the switch from mining to manufacturing and the coal to solar drift, as I’m sure you can imagine given where I work.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much all we’re known for. More my dad’s forte than mine, though.”

“I do have some friends who aren’t from Pyrite, but, like, the general area, who talk about the battling clubs there.” Julia was a huge proponent of gesturing with her hands and she put down her fork to properly emphasize “general area.” “That feels more your speed, since you’re here for the league and all.”

“Most definitely. Six solid years of experience and I am good,” Astraea said. “Or so I’ve been told,” she quickly added.

“If you’re that confident, you’d better give me a fun match!”

“Aim to. You’re first for most people, right?”

“Yep! I like it like that, I get more matches than some of the others. Of course, you do have your options, but I would much rather you fight me first.”

“I’m planning on it. I’m starting from scratch though, so I’m not completely sure, someone else may end up being a better starting point.”

“Well, whenever it ends up being, I’m now eagerly anticipating it. Downside of being first is less high-quality matches.”

“Okay, okay, I’ve got to ask,” Astraea said, “you’re, what, twenty? How does someone as young as you become a gym leader?”

“Twenty-one,” Julia said, “but the point stands.” Her hand came up to fiddle with her ponytail. “I graduated from one of the trainer schools here the same year Ame started rebuilding the league. Most of the older skilled people jumped ship when the original league collapsed, so it made sense for her to turn to up-and-coming trainers. Plus, I think she just wanted to hire some people around her age, too. She actually hired four of us out of my graduating class! Me and three of my best friends.” That got what was probably the biggest smile from her yet. “Two of them are major league leaders,” she said, pride shining through in her voice.

“Do they live outside the city? I thought there were only minor league leaders here.”

Julia nodded. “The live together up in the Aventurine Sector. Though, there are two major league leaders here. Never met either, though. One’s in Lapis, she’s new this year and she's, like, just-out-of-req-school young. And one’s in Jasper. He hasn’t been involved with Ame’s attempts at reworking the city, so I’ve never needed to meet him.”

“Wow, and here I’d assumed you’d all have met each other once or twice.” Given that things were literally blowing up, it seemed like the bare minimum. “Do you help Ame a lot, then?”

“Here and there! The power plant is my child as far as projects go.”

“Yeah, I've been told it's completely new. Why not just renovate the old one instead? I mean, at least you wouldn't have to build a new building that way.”

“Well, the old one shut down ten years ago when the company that owned it went under. The city didn’t have a central one after that and just kind of used whatever. Which sounds worse than it actually was, but I think having a functioning central plant is pretty obviously better than any alternative! We did look at renovating the old one, but it was coal, not solar, so the workload was going to be massive and, for whatever reason, prying the land away from the new owner was _not_ happening. So, we built a new one!”

“It looks impressive. And like it was a lot of work.” Astraea still wasn't completely convinced it was necessary work, but, hey, Julia probably was a better judge of that than her.

“Oh, it wasn’t that much,” Julia said, tucking loose strands of hair behind her ear. “My best friend, Florinia—she’s the grass gym leader—she’s done _so_ much more.” The pride instantly sprang back into her voice. “See, we went to the Onyx Trainer’s School, and it’s part of a really good secondary school. And Reborn does _not_ have that many good schools, private or otherwise, so it actually means something that this one’s good. The year we graduated, they wanted to shut the department down, because the dean was leaving for Kanto, but, again, not that many good schools!" Julia paused to take a breath. "So, Rini, since she was already talking to Ame ‘cause of gym leader stuff, managed to get her to get the people in charge of that decision to let Rini take over the dean’s job so that entire department wouldn’t close. Which is _so_ huge!”

“Gods, wait, is she the same age as you? How the hell did she get them to let her do that?”

“Year younger. She’s really, _really_ smart, and organized, and good at finding money where people think there isn’t any. And the people in charge knew all that. She’d been working on campus for, like, two years already, so...”

“That’s really impressive.” Astraea could barely keep up with taking care of herself and her family most months. The number of moving parts in a place like that was massive; it was impossible for her to even consider being responsible for that much.

“Isn’t it? She’s _amazing_. You should meet her! I know you’re gonna challenge her, but I mean actually meet her. I feel like there’s a chance you’d get along.”

Astraea smiled. There was pretty much no way Julia could actually know that. “I’m not opposed. I want to know how someone can feasibly handle something like that this young.”

“Mostly by being very busy with work,” Julia said with a sigh. “You know who's not, though? You. And me, in the evenings. If I invited you to parties, would you come?"

“I’d be down.” It was a good way to meet people. And Julia was a gym leader, so it was probably a good way to find a sparring partner or two. At the least, it sounded entertaining and she would probably get free drinks.

“Yes, yes, yes! Okay, so—Oh, wait.” Julia’s phone started ringing from inside her bag. “Sorry, I thought I turned that off,” she said, twisting in her chair to retrieve it. “Oh.” She blinked at the screen for a moment, then took the call. “Hihi, Ame! I’m actually at—Uh, what?” Julia’s brows furrowed and her free hand came up to run across the top of her hair. After a moment, she stood up from the table, mouthing another apology.

Astraea watched as she walked to a less crowded corner of the restaurant, by a window. Her free arm was crossed against her chest as she paced back and forth, head turned downward as she spoke but mostly listened.

Julia returned, arms crossed. She sat down, almost mechanically, and placed her phone down on the table. After a few moments of staring at it, she said, “I’m going to tell you what Ame just told me and you should probably not tell anyone the details. I mean, I probably shouldn’t be telling you at all, but, whatever.”

Immediately, Astraea felt her stomach twist. “What happened?”

“Know how I said earlier that it’d only be a few weeks to fix the comm tower?”

“…Yeah.” The gods were really not on her side lately.

“Beryl, uh, definitely has bigger problems now. And also, Jasper.” She paused and tilted her head, thinking. “You know how, sometimes, a wild pokémon gets loose and it can take people a while to catch it? So, inevitably, when something goes wrong, you assume it’s just some wild pokémon? And it might take an hour or two, but it’s catchable?”

“Definitely.”

“So.” Julia started to spin her phone in slow, controlled circles. “This morning, before sunrise, some of the patrolmen caught some vines sprouting up way too close to some service buildings. Those really thick, unnatural ones. But there’s a forest nearby. So, it’s just a wild pokémon, right?”

Astraea nodded, watching the phone’s slow, hypnotic movements.

“They go looking for it. It’s not going to be that dangerous, after all, they all have pokémon. Except, they go looking, and then they _don’t come back_. So, now we have a problem, right? But not because the patrolmen didn’t come back. No, we have a problem because the vines are bigger. And they started getting onto buildings. Like, the apartments, not just the warehouses.”

Astraea felt the world fall out from under her, just a little bit.

“I guess people missed that they were growing there too, since it was still dark. And around that point, they couldn’t keep looking for what’s causing them, because the damage got to be so extensive they had to spend time _evacuating_. And they still don’t know where the patrolmen who first called it in are.” Julia sighed and shook her head. “Ame’s gotten in touch with the Beryl Ward leader, but not the Jasper Ward leader. He’s the major league guy. He’s the one most equipped to deal with this. But no one can find him. Plus, they’re only telling me now, which probably means they’re only telling _Florinia_ now, when she’s the grass leader! She’s the one who would maybe know what’s causing it! But no one—And, from what Ame said, the damage is—” Julia stopped her phone’s course abruptly. “Actually, on second thought, I’m glad Rini’s not there.”

And then she stopped talking, instead tapping her nails against the table, the short, yellow acrylics creating an audible noise. She looked concerned more than anything.

Astraea cursed before she could stop herself, then managed to hold back a laundry list of comments, including _So, wait, when is the comm tower going to be fixed?_ and _Hey, this is timed pretty close to the station, do you think it’s the same people?_ “None of that’s good.”

“Not really, huh? Well… Once they’re sure people are safe, and they can get out into the woods, they’ll be able to track down whatever it is.” Julia took her phone off the table and put it back into her purse, then leaned down to pick Hopper up and place him in her lap. “Yeah, definitely, right?” Some of the cheer made its way back into her tone. “Sure, it would have been way better if they’d fixed things earlier this morning, but it’ll be fine, it always is.”

Astraea didn’t agree, but she smiled and nodded along regardless.

“From what Ame said, I think Beryl’s gym and the comm tower are pretty untouched so far.”

Okay, that was one ball in Astraea’s court.

“All it really means is that stuff hasn’t spread to the back of Beryl, but it’s a good sign.” She looked down at the table. “We should probably go. As much as I hate to say it, there’ll be actually urgent stuff for me to do back at the plant. At least it’ll be more entertaining than the paperwork from earlier.”

“Yeah, of course. Thanks for taking me out, by the way.”

“Oh, it’s no problem! It was a fun distraction.”

Then they sat there, quiet.

Julia broke after only a minute. Astraea watched as she pushed a smile back on her face. It didn’t quite reach her eyes the way the others had. “I was serious about inviting you to things. Here, give me your number while we’re waiting on the check.”

Astraea slipped her phone out of her jacket pocket and pulled her number up on the screen before passing it to Julia. As Julia focused on typing, Astraea let thoughts roll around in her head about how many and what kinds of pokémon it would take for something that destructive to happen and how long the comm tower repairs would be delayed. 

That two-week timeframe was probably shot.

And if it was, lunch had been kind of waste.

“I’m giving you mine too.”

Astraea took her phone back. “I’ll admit, I’m kind of excited. Been doing pretty much nothing for the past few days, so it’d be a fun change of pace.”

“Well, I have a lot of free time on the weekends! I’ll be busy tonight, but tomorrow or Sunday, there’ll be something. Sometimes we mess around with firecrackers under Opal Bridge. I don’t know how fun that’d be for you, but you could at least meet some people, I guess.”

“That actually sounds wildly entertaining,” Astraea said, breaking into a smile suddenly.

Maybe it hadn’t been _that_ much of a waste.

“Oh, good! Yeah, we’re gonna get along very well.” Julia took her card back from the waitress, stood, placed Hopper back on the ground, and untied his leash from the table. “I think I’m going to head to the Jasper Ward entrance.”

“Mind if I come?”

“It won’t be interesting, but if you want.”

Astraea couldn’t tell if the number of people in the street was unusual for the time of day or not. Hopper led the way, tugging along on his leash with his nose to the ground. After a few blocks, in a neighborhood Astraea hadn’t ventured to before, Julia stopped. Hopper came to sit at her side.

Five policemen stood outside the tunnel across the street, growlithes and arcanines sitting next to them and guarding the entrance. Graffiti littered the worn-down tunnel’s outside and what little of its inside Astraea could see. The sign above it, in dimly lit letters, said _Jasper Ward_ , though the _W_ was burned out, leaving it a pale gray next to the other letters’ dirty yellow.

After a moment, Julia handed Hopper’s leash to Astraea. “I’ll be right back.”

Astraea crouched down to pet Hopper, keeping an eye on Julia as she crossed the street and approached the police officers. One shook hands with her when she interjected herself into their circle. Just like at the train crash, she didn’t look like she belonged, something in her white tank top and orange skirt putting her at odds with their crisp dark blue uniforms. It certainly didn’t help matters that they all towered over her.

Julia returned after a minute and took Hopper’s leash back. “Well, I learned nothing! Just that it’s not great.”

“I can’t imagine it would be.”

Julia stood frozen in place, eyes narrowed as she stared at the tunnel, a heel tapping against the ground. “Okay, so, the thing that’s getting to me here,” she said. “When I was growing up, all the adults around my mom told her to abandon this place to the absols. Y’know, cut her losses and move. But she didn’t want to leave! She always felt like this place would get better. And I’ve always agreed with her! And in the past few months, it’s finally felt like other people are agreeing with me too. I _really_ don’t want one single bad thing to remind everyone of last decade and make them stop agreeing.”

“Y’know, I’d try to sympathize, but I did almost die three days ago, and frankly this place isn’t impressive enough to make up for that.”

“Oh god, yeah, I—” Julia broke off, laughing a bit. “I don’t expect you to! I don’t really think you should! It’s just… my mom, she lived in Jasper until last year. And, like, if she still did, would I—God, you know what? You are the _last_ person I should be getting all in-depth about this with! I’ll stop now.”

“Good choice, I think,” Astraea said, rolling her eyes. “I’m glad your mom’s not there now, though.”

“Me too.” Julia coaxed Hopper to his paws. “I’m gonna head back. You can walk with, if you want.”

“I think I’ll split off here, actually. I’m closer to this side of town.”

If Astraea circled the block a few times to try and glean a better understanding of what was happening, that was no one’s business but her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and this is the shortened version of this chapter, ~~actually there's more i could trim but i don't wanna lol~~


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a lot of words using the reborn setting w very few mentions of Actual reborn characters, and if you read it thank you _very_ much <3

Bast was curled up on the hotel bed, asleep.

Astraea was curled up on the chair in the corner, studying Bast’s existing documentation on her phone.

Nestled amid the variant certifications and medical records were a few pages written by Bast’s previous owner that detailed her battling skills, composed exactly as Astraea suspected all league-distributed starter pokémon’s notes were. Thorough, of course, but with excessive highlighting of strengths and a tendency to gloss over perceived weaknesses. Only vaguely useful, at best. 

Not that it really mattered. Astraea already knew she’d end up rewriting the entire document in a month or so, no matter how objective it was. Given Bast’s background, she was going to quickly outgrow it once they started training intensively.

After all, pokémon received as starters through official league channels needed to be manageable, productive team members for anyone who had never owned a pokémon in their own name, a broad category that ranged from thirteen-year-olds spending their gap year in pursuit of a couple badges to middle-aged degree holders who had spent years raising other people’s pokémon and wanted a change of pace. To achieve that, the species the league offered were even-tempered and easy to train in their starting stage, while still possessing massive potential in their later evolutions, and each individual pokémon was trained to a basic standard that gave inexperienced trainers a good foundation to learn from and let experienced trainers have their first team member battle-ready in a matter of weeks. 

Astraea fell somewhere in the experienced category, especially when fire types were involved.

Classified as a standard-magician fennekin, Bast was already displaying budding psychic abilities. Though they wouldn’t be very strong until she evolved, there were a number of ways she could learn to utilize them before that. Her documentation said she was already capable of using telekinesis to redirect or suspend small amounts of fire at a time, and even a light push or spark of energy could throw an opponent off and help her gain an advantage. 

Besides that more abstract talent, Bast owned a set of sharp teeth and claws. They wouldn’t matter too much in the long run, given that braixens and delphoxes performed better when allowed to attack almost exclusively from a distance, but giving Bast ample experience in biting and pinning opponents wouldn’t go to waste. Close-quarters experience and a deep understanding of the need for precision were infinitely invaluable skills. 

The text also bragged about Bast’s response time, claiming she was skilled in both avoiding opponent’s attacks and the next step up: rebounding to attack the other party before they had time to recover from their miss. Astraea was extremely interested in finding out how much of that was exaggeration and how much was truth. If Bast was even halfway as good with that as her previous owner claimed, then Astraea had managed to actually pick a pokémon whose fighting style matched her own.

She clicked her phone’s screen off and tossed it onto the bed. It would be smooth sailing on Bast’s end of things. They had three built-in starting points right there and that didn’t even touch the main event, her fire. 

Unfortunately, though, there was the matter of Astraea’s own skills to consider too.

She rose from the chair and stretched.

For her, commands were the main hurdle. 

The fennekin line had a surprisingly good grasp on human language, enough that they didn’t need to be trained with rigid commands. Names for techniques were necessary, but past that they were able to draw meaning from improvised sentences. Theoretically, that was perfect. A dream when compared to the strict, tight commands one would have to use on the field with a charizard or a feraligater.

All a trainer really needed to do was implement the basic tenants of good verbal commanding. Know when to talk, when to shut up and let their pokémon do the work instead of distracting them, and how to convey complex maneuvers in only a few words on the fly.

The problem was that Astraea barely used verbal commands. She trained her pokémon to respond to hand signals only she knew, something even a pokémon that required tight control could learn. Opposing trainers spent half the match trying to figure out what anything meant, while Astraea knew exactly what they were saying the entire time. And sure, she taught verbal commands too, but they were supplemental more than anything.

Back home, she never had any issues with it. Orre’s colosseum stadiums used circular rings and Orre’s battling clubs, especially the rougher ones, followed suit. The boundaries of pokémon and trainers alike were malleable; everyone moved around the circle as they felt necessary. Astraea could keep to where her pokémon could see her without any real fuss. 

But in standard league battles—tournament, gym challenge, whatever—the arena was a rectangle and the trainer was stuck directly behind their pokémon. Hand signals were no longer a reliable option. She had to use verbal commands.

Technically, training in Orresian granted her a small linguistic advantage, since Unovan was the more popular language in Reborn. But there’d be plenty of trainers who knew battle terms in Orresian even if they weren’t fluent. Astraea knew some Kalosian and Hoennian for that very reason. So, at most, her “advantage” was only going to make up for the problems she’d have properly using commands in the first place. If it even did that. 

And the urge to teach hand signals was not going to go away. There was a comfort in knowing she could be completely silent with her pokémon if the situation called for it, and Astraea didn’t want to let that go. Inevitably, she’d end up spending time on them. 

It just couldn’t be a priority anymore. She’d have to adapt. 

Wouldn’t be too hard. 

After all, it was all she was doing anymore. 

• • •

Cain’s map was thumbtacked to a wall in her hotel room, its use exhausted. Still sitting patiently in the bottom left corner was his number, but Astraea didn’t even bother to put it in her phone. What was the point? He had been helpful when she needed help, loathe as she was to admit it, and that was all their interaction ever needed to be.

She didn’t take the map down, though. It made the wall look less sad.

Julia benevolently granted her access to someone’s house party. It started in a second-story apartment and slowly spilled out into the complex’s courtyard as the living room became claustrophobic. Astraea wandered around by herself and spoke to other mostly-freelance trainers, trying to glean a better understanding of Reborn’s training ecosystem without coming across as too unbearably interested in networking.

Battling club names came up and Astraea didn’t really care. That wasn’t her life anymore.

The cancellation of multiple cup tournaments in the wake of certain recent disasters came up and Astraea did very much care. There went an income source, a notoriety source; a “balance out win/loss percentages” source.

Her options seemed to get narrower, her luck seemed to get worse, every time she talked to someone.

She went back inside the too-warm apartment and found Julia again, laughing with her friends and dancing in place to music Astraea didn’t know. After a round of introductions with girls equally as upbeat as Julia, all still giggling about some guy who said some thing to some girl, Astraea let herself blend into the shadows, existing only when spoken to.

When things died down, Julia and Astraea wandered away from the building together. They ended up venturing into the shallowest parts of the railnet tunnels, armed with flashlights, Bast, and an energetic Hopper. Still carrying her last drink, with no recent disaster hanging over her head, Julia treated Astraea exactly like her real friends, jumping from story to story with overjoyed, reckless abandon, searching for causes of excitement in every little word Astraea said and every little crack in the railnet’s walls.

In return, Astraea put on a good show of being in a good mood.

There wasn’t much to see in the top part of the railnet. Just dirt and poochyenas and a swarm of zubat. But the way the tunnels curved, and the rail tracks and its support system curved with them, reminded Astraea of the places she wandered in at home.

With the exit to Reborn out of sight, it was easy to forget.

• • •

Eventually, Astraea decided to use an abandoned apartment complex on the southeast side of Peridot for training. It won over all the other abandoned buildings laying around the city ward because there was only one busy road nearby. Less of a chance she’d be seen.

She climbed the chain-link fence surrounding the apartments, the metal pressing into into her palms, and ended up in the calf-high weeds on the other side. Once she’d made it out of the jungle and to the graffitied buildings, she released Bast from her Poké Ball. Bast, already briefed on the intent of their adventure, paused to shake out her fur and then started to the left, tail swishing back and forth in time with her steps. Astraea followed behind.

She’d weighed her choices for a training space before jumping straight to illegal trespassing. There just weren’t any other promising options. Cheap arenas in Peridot, often crammed into unlit backroads, exuded an unsettling energy. Businesses in North Obsidia didn’t give off “get murdered in an alleyway” vibes, but were too expensive for her to use consistently. When she searched online, places in Jasper and Beryl popped up too and… it was best not to dwell on those things.

The first door she and Bast reached said _Service Entrance_ , the white paint peeling off on most letters. Astraea tried the handle. It caught, not unexpectedly. There was an actual keyhole instead of a card reader— _How old was this place for an employee entrance to need a key?_ She would have picked the lock, but there would be ways inside that were less likely to be full of machinery.

As they moved away from the door, into the overgrown, sickly courtyard, Astraea found her right hand drifting to the knife that never left her pocket. When Bast leapt onto the edge of an old, dry fountain, surveying the area with nose held high in the air, Astraea had to hold back the urge to whistle for her to return. Her uneasiness was unfounded, but the complex’s buildings loomed over them from all angles and had plenty of shadowy corners.

It didn’t help that the only noises breaking the near-silence were sudden and jarring: a delivery truck backfiring, people’s shouts carrying from the street.

Astraea did things like this often enough. It wasn’t the situation on its own, or any question of her own competency, that was putting her on edge, it was just… Bast. Bast wasn’t Bandit, her dad’s scarred, hawkish houndoom, who had been a fixture in Astraea’s life since the day she was born.

Bandit had protected Astraea’s father when he’d explored The Under for himself, years before Astraea was born. Bandit had won her father an occasional battle in his younger years, then won Astraea so many colosseum and cage matches that she had one of the highest win-rates of anyone she knew. Bandit had been her constant companion while exploring since she was twelve, her constant fighting partner since she was fourteen.

And Bast?

Bast was _one_. Compared to Bandit, she was a baby.

Astraea loved Bast just as fiercely—she was _Astraea’s_ after all, not _Clay’s, But On Loan_ —but she couldn’t rely on Bast to protect herself if something jumped from the shadows, or to anticipate threats before Astraea could. In that sense, they weren’t equals and Astraea held a greater responsibility than before. She had to watch Bast and make sure she was safe, until Bast was experienced enough to do so for herself.

It was that responsibility that had Astraea watching an upstairs apartment because she thought, maybe, a curtain had moved, even though all logic dictated that it didn’t matter, even if it had.

Despite her distraction, she kept trying apartment doors and glancing through cracks in curtained windows, hoping she wouldn’t disturb anyone inside a unit. It wouldn’t surprise her if several of the seemingly abandoned apartments, especially the ones in better shape, were actually pretty occupied. Peridot was not by any means a rich area of the city.

That was probably why she was yet to feel especially out of place as she stumbled through thrift stores, fast food lines, dilapidated streets, and getting her life back on track while using as little money as possible—even though it didn’t feel all too different from her normal life. Her family had never veered quite so close to the edge as a third of Peridot seemed to be, but Astraea was no stranger to sacrificing so her sisters got something they needed, or working her ass off because, otherwise, only one person’s paycheck came in and there were plenty of times it didn’t cover four people’s needs, much less their wants.

She heard the same kind of story over and over at home. She heard it in Reborn, too.

There was an older man she kept running into in the lobby of her hotel who was living there permanently, coming up with just enough to afford cheap food and the nightly fee, the times he came up short glossed over by the front desk clerks in exchange for a story or two. He told Astraea the cheapest places to shop, how nice the city used to be only a few decades ago, where the gangs normally hung out so she could avoid them; any piece of advice she wanted, provided she spent a few minutes talking to him.

He also told her how his wife got sick and died and everything they’d had went to medical bills. A nauseating feeling of familiarity had settled in her chest and, starting the very next day, she’d found herself hanging around the front desk every morning to offer him some companionship, no advice necessary.

Finally, one of the apartment doors gave way when Astraea tried to open it.

It was dark inside, but the sun carried in enough light for her to see that the living room, at least, was unoccupied. She whistled for Bast, the sound carrying over the open space and echoing off the edges of the buildings.

Bast sprung down from her stone perch and trotted to Astraea, moving with her usual grace and poise even as she hurried across the courtyard and into the room.

Astraea pulled her flashlight from her bag’s outside pocket and clicked it on, then let the apartment’s exterior door swing shut behind her. There was a window with the curtains pulled to the side, but the glass was so coated with grime that light had a difficult time filtering through. Sparse furniture lazed on the floor, a thin layer of dust glowing on it in the beam from her flashlight. The tiny entertainment center, scratched up couch, and nearby kitchen stools matched so well they could have been standard issue, rather than a remnant of someone’s past life.

Bast’s eyes glowed yellow when the flashlight passed over her face.

Wood creaked under Astraea’s feet as she walked to the window and unlatched it, dust coming off on her hands. She shoved it open, letting light stream into the room.

• • •

Astraea was starting to hate concrete. And hotels. And apartment complexes.

Big cities, too.

There was no desert sand. No plants, no greenery, not even little cactus gardens in front of the buildings. There was just gray, and more gray, and little splashes of muted, dirty, dark colors. And then that one giant building painted an obnoxious yellow that Astraea barely even _liked_.

At night, there were no stars. Light pollution blocked them out. The actual pollution did, too.

No matter how hard she stared at the colossal lake Reborn sat against, the water stayed a murky, unpleasant brown. She spent so long staring, she started to lose trust in the city’s tap water. A grimer had surfaced in it once, leaving ripples of tainted water in its wake and becoming the trigger for her to start buying bottled water for more than just her daily excursions. Even the best filtration system couldn’t completely wipe the image out of her head.

Obsidia was a bit better than Peridot. The buildings there popped more, with some splashes of pink and pale blue and jade green. But she quickly learned to avoid the north, because there was still lingering structural damage from a decade ago, caused by the same earthquakes that had killed the railnet system. There was a park in the ward, by the shopping district, but it was thirty minutes from her hotel by foot and in such a sad state that the journey didn’t feel worth it. To declare visiting that park deserving of an hour of her day spent walking felt like it would be stooping to a new level of depressing.

There were woods inside the city bounds. A vast bridge that formed the city’s wall and overlooked Tourmaline, too. But both those things were farther north, inside Jasper and Beryl, and the tunnel into Jasper was still blocked off.

After a few days, it was no longer manned by police officers, instead barricaded with a padlocked gate. Astraea presumed the unofficial policy was that if you were stupid enough to break in when the news screamed that it was unsafe, you deserved whatever fate you met, and they weren’t going to waste time chasing you down. That said, if she had actual mechanical knowledge, she probably would have already broken the lock and made her own illegal attempt at fixing the comm tower.

After all, she was still letting her father know she was alive through _bank statements_.

To make matters worse, Julia wasn’t telling her anything. Astraea couldn’t decipher if it was because she’d been told not to tell, or if there really was nothing.

She was still making time to hang out with Astraea, though, even though she had a job and actual friends. They didn’t even get along _that_ spectacularly. Sure, they clicked okay, but not enough for Astraea to deserve so much attention. There was no _reason_ for Julia to bring her even farther into the railnet tunnels and show her the walls embedded with sableye gems, or invite her into her apartment on the north side of Peridot, or show her how the sky became a little clearer from the rooftops.

Astraea was going to challenge Julia and win and move on and never speak to her again, and Julia was going to have wasted hours of her own time and probably feel bad about it.

But that was just life, right?

Like how, sometimes, you were stuck in a city all by yourself, and it seemed fine at first, even though you bounced around aimlessly in your day-to-day life, but then almost a week and a half passed and it started to feel like a punishment. And you couldn’t figure out for what, but you knew it must be for _something_.

And that was just life, right?

• • •

“Black. This ledge is black. And I don’t think anyone ever intended for it to be black.” It was the first time Astraea had ever actually looked around the kitchen in the apartments, and she was instantly reminded of why she’d been avoiding it. “Oh gods, I’ve just been breathing this in, haven’t I? What do you think this is? Is it mold or…?”  


Bast, who was standing right next to her, didn’t reply. That didn’t exactly instill Astraea with confidence.

“Yeah, I need a minute.”

The apartments were _killing_ her. Well, not literally, but there was still a chance for that! It’d just take a few years for whatever horrible disease she was probably developing from breathing in mildew to crop up.

She was trying her best to keep her head above water, really, but…

Everything was so quiet. The apartments, her hotel room; her life.

The only people she talked to on a consistent basis were Julia, the front desk clerks, and the man at her hotel. And those were fleeting conversations, mostly.

It was strange. She’d honestly always thought she’d be happy to exist in a world like that, where she didn’t have to keep up conversations she hated with people she barely cared for day-in and day-out just because she saw them all the time and knew their face or their family or their pokémon.

It turned out that world sucked.

Probably because her family had disappeared from the equation. She’d caught herself scrolling through the pictures and videos on her phone more than once. They had always been the singular constant. Even when they didn’t know what was happening in her life, they were still the people she came home to at the end of the day.

Bast pressed against Astraea’s legs, weaving her way between them, and Astraea scooped her up into her arms. She paced.

They’d been training, sure, but everything else in her life felt stagnant. It wasn’t even that she hated how things were. The hotel was fine, the city was… less fine, but—Okay, she did kind of hate it. But only because of all the unplanned things happening.

Normally, she’d be fine.

Normally, she’d have started preparing for the S-Class Psychic exam, just like she’d planned to. Added an extra shiny credential to her ID while she was only team building instead of trying to do it while she was facing difficult fights.

Instead, she let the news play in her hotel room and watched as the reporters slowly stopped talking about Jasper and Beryl. Or she sat out on a bench by the water, watching people pass her by as the grass and the benches and the flowers in the heavily gated courtyard of the lake-side apartments taunted her.

Maybe if she—

She jumped at the sudden, sharp bang that came from the ceiling and nearly dropped Bast, who wriggled out from her arms and undignifiedly landed on the floor. Above them, there was the dull thuds of something running.

It faded into silence.

“What the hell?” Astraea grabbed her flashlight and bag. “C’mon.”

Bast made a sound that let Astraea know she absolutely did not approve of following weird noises, but she trailed behind as Astraea headed into the hallway, bag thrown over one shoulder.

There was both an elevator and a set of stairs nearby. No way was she taking the elevator, even if it did somehow work. Astraea waited a moment, listening to hear if something was coming down the stairs, then pulled open their door. It was heavy and its hinges groaned in protest, the sound reverberating loudly down the hall.

Essentially a concrete box, the stairwell was reminiscent of the one in the Grand Hall. No matter how hard Astraea tried to stay quiet, her shoes made noise every time they hit the steps. Bast was having a much easier time, bounding up the stairs two at a time without making a noise.

Finally, they reached the second floor landing. Astraea glanced out into the hallway and found no one there. The door to the apartment two doors down was thrown open, with no visible lights.

Astraea pointed her flashlight toward the ground in an attempt to keep it from being too prominent, then headed toward the door and took her first steps inside. The room was pitch black, just like the stairwell. If there was a window, the curtains on it were thicker than the ones in the downstairs units. Half-covering her flashlight with one hand, she turned to bring its light up toward the left, took a step backward, and—

“Oh, _fuck_.”

She tripped backwards over an upended cabinet, landing hard on her just-healed arm.

_Explains the crash._

“I. Hate. _Everything_.”

Something hissed in the darkness, to Astraea’s right. Bast’s immediate response was to growl deep in her chest and Astraea, still on the ground, flung her light in the direction of the sound.

Curled in the corner was an espurr, with what looked like blood on their shoulder.

“ _Oh_ , oh, Bast, it’s okay. It’s okay.” Gingerly, she pulled herself back into a standing position, pressing her right arm up against her chest. “Oh, what happened to you? Did something hurt you?”

They hissed again, quieter this time.

“Bast, move back a little, they’re scared of you. And probably me, but—Maybe go to the left some? Don’t go back to the door, whatever else was in here sounded pretty big.” And unless there were other stairs, they were still on the same floor, too. “Hi there, are you gonna let me get close to you?” Astraea tried to take a few steps forward and a weak twinge of psychic energy sparked against her shoulder, the espurr’s eyes momentarily glowing a dim pink. “No? Here, look, I have food. You can have some, if you want?”

She lowered herself back to the ground, careful not to make any sudden movements, and reached into her bag, pulling out the container of treats meant for Bast. “Here.” She rolled a few to the espurr. After a moment’s hesitation, they reached out and grabbed them with their uninjured paw, bringing them close enough to eat without moving. “See, it’s okay.”

Astraea remained in her half-crouch, leaned back against the fallen cabinet. She glanced across the room to Bast, who was sitting patiently. Astraea could hear the sound of her tail sweeping back and forth across the floor.

The espurr seemed skinny. Whether that should be attributed to a domestic pokémon being abandoned or a feral pokémon who couldn’t find food in the city, Astraea didn’t know.

“Here, you want more? Just let me get a little closer.” She made it a step or two across the floor, then tossed more of the treats to the espurr and waited.

Astraea continued the routine until she was finally sitting next to them. Their fur was tangled in a few different places, mostly around their tightly shut ears, and their wound looked like something had taken an un-tempered bite at their leg. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore. Astraea reached out, letting the espurr watch her movements, and gently stroked the back of their head. They didn’t flinch or try to push her away.

“That’s good. Will you let me pick you up? I could clean that for you.” She doubted the espurr could understand her in any great capacity, but she tried to push kindness in her tone. Attempting to keep the area around them vaguely lit, she put the flashlight down and rifled through her bag for her flannel by touch alone. Once she found it, she wrapped Espurr in it and gently scooped them up, cradling them close to her chest.

“Aw, aren’t you a good girl?”

She mewed up at Astraea, quiet.

She seemed young. Too young to be by herself.

Astraea sighed down at her. “Right, then. Let’s all get out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *releases this chapter into the wild so i _never_ have to look at it again*, this & 6 were maybe the hardest i have ever had to work to make something even pass for readable?? i like the end result v much but god i reread it all So Much.
> 
> ~~also if you noticed a typo in this one (or any of them tbh) pls tell me, i didn't proof it right before posting like i normally do aaa~~


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy holidays y'all! <3

Azurine Lake’s water never improved in quality, but Astraea got used to sitting by it. Old benches were scattered along the last road before the lake, rarely used and prime for her to occupy for as long as she wanted. She always faced away from the lake itself. “Out of sight, out of mind” was the best tactic for dealing with almost every unpleasant thing in Reborn.

Besides, the best bench—metal, therefore immune to rot, and in good enough shape that rust didn’t flake off in her hands when she touched it—faced a peaceful looking apartment complex. Astraea could just see its courtyard in the cracks between the buildings, the image sticking in her head and refusing to leave. It was grass and tiled stone paths and blooming flowers, obviously loved by somebody. Astraea had her money on the older man she saw sweeping the front steps in the mornings.

Espurr, who had firmly refused to leave Astraea’s side after only a night and quickly decided she liked being called Juliet, took great joy in harassing everyone who entered and exited the building until they petted her. She soaked up the attention and, on the rare occasion someone dropped her a treat, she’d bring it back to share with Bast, who much preferred to stay with Astraea. 

The waterfront was an easy place to think when the hotel felt too stuffy and the Pokémon Center felt too crowded. And Astraea had to document every single thing on Juliet by herself, so she needed that place to retreat to often. 

She had taken Juliet to a Pokémon Center and gotten her properly registered after it became clear she had adopted Astraea whether or not Astraea wanted her to. The nurse on duty had told her that Juliet was only four months old, which explained how tiny she was, and that she was somewhere between one half and one quarter shinx. Espurr and shinx was an odd combination, the kind that was dubbed “mixed breed” instead of receiving a designer title, but it showed in the stripes on Juliet’s legs that carried her white socks further up her body.

It also showed in that there was a lot more stray static electricity in the hotel room than there had been before, a fact that definitely contributed to them all taking more outings. And combining with the electricity to make a perfect disaster, Juliet was rambunctious when she wasn’t busy playing sweet with strangers, knocking items off every countertop she came in contact with and trying to levitate, then inevitably dropping, almost everything in sight. 

Astraea loved her.

And considered it fairly lucky Bast wasn’t easy to influence.

But it was nearly impossible to sort out if Juliet was going to be an effective fighter while she was still so young, especially when Astraea had no lineage to trace, no parents to reference. Her psychic and electric abilities were slowly, clumsily bubbling to the surface, and she had a cry manipulation that was just-passably fairy, but there was no concrete way to tell how fast or how far her raw power would grow, even if she was picking up skills as quickly as Astraea could teach them. At the end of the day, though, even if she didn’t turn out to be good in an arena… Astraea was already attached. 

Besides, her presence was doing wonders for Bast. Astraea could replicate moving targets as much as she wanted, but there was nothing better than the real deal. Slowly, Bast was getting better at using psychic energy to make adjustments when she was off on her attack’s original angles and using it as a blocking tool to keep distance between her and her opponent. 

Bast was, without a doubt, going to be excellent in a real arena. Plus, given that she was already a year old and had been working for at least six months, Astraea wouldn’t be surprised if she evolved in the next month or two. She was already quietly keeping an eye out to see if Bast started drifting toward the stick-seeking behavior fennekins on the edge of evolution were known for. 

Juliet scampered back across the road at full tilt and launched herself onto the bench, narrowly missing Bast. Short tail waving back and forth, she proudly dropped the half of a granola bar someone had given her. Astraea reached out to run a hand through her fur. “You know,” she said, “they’re just giving you food ‘cause they think you’re a stray. It’s a little rude to take advantage of them like that.” 

Juliet only purred harder.

• • •

Astraea found her way to a temple. For once in her life, she didn’t jump through hoops in her mind to purposefully miss the actual service, even if she stayed on the fringes of the crowd while it occurred. 

Afterwards, as the other people dissipated, she found her way to an intricate statue of Dialga situated underneath a stained-glass window. The metallic paint on Dialga’s body glittered in the bright light streaming through. Multiple miniature celebis danced around the statue, encircling their body in a cleverly executed wheel. 

Astraea wasn’t much for worship, not in the way some people were, but she took a steady comfort from her inherited beliefs in how the world worked. 

Every possible timeline, every iteration of events, existed within the confines of the universe. Some timelines, some combinations of events, would get her where she wanted to go. Some wouldn’t. Some would take longer, some would take almost no time at all. But they were all out there, waiting to register as _real_ to the creatures that couldn’t see them otherwise. 

Her mother would have prayed to Dialga, asking them to provide the shortest possible time stream in which Reborn and Orre reconnected. Astraea was less inclined to think they cared for one individual’s plight, if they were even still alive at all. Her faith lay more in the fact that, if all those timelines existed, tangibly enough that celebis could hop through and between them and that Dialga could manipulate them, then the choices Astraea made mattered. She couldn’t alter everything by herself, there were some things she couldn’t change at all, and there wasn’t a magic word that could fix everything in her life, but she damn well could shove a lot of things around if she played her cards right.

Her current problems definitely felt like things she could shove around, even if it was hard to compete with whoever was trying to collapse half the city in on itself. After all, she vaguely knew the league manager and probably had a great deal of sympathy to use up with her. She was arguably friends with an in-city gym leader who had some weight to throw around. 

She’d worked with less than that before. 

She stood at the shrine and politely inquired if Dialga could make other people’s actions get in line with her goals, please and thank you, anyway. 

• • •

Astraea was good at trespassing, even when the area in question was occupied. She sucked at true stealth—pokémon _always_ seemed to spot her—but she was good at blending in. As long as she wore the right clothes and acted like she belonged, 99% of people didn’t spare her a second glance. 

And that little garden in that apartment complex called out to her, coaxing her in with flashes of red and pink flowers, calling her forward with the song of spearows drifting from the bushes. 

She entered unobtrusively, jacket draped over her arm instead of tied around her waist, Juliet scampering along beside her and acting like the overenthusiastic, untrained housecat she basically was.

There was a fan sitting on the front desk, pointed out across the lobby, but the room was still warm even with it running at full blast. A woman, looking somewhere in her thirties, was seated and staring at a computer. The place looked nice enough, though some of the haphazardly placed wall decorations made her wonder if they were concealing cracks and blemishes in the wall. 

Astraea, quiet and polite and saying _yes, ma’am_ and _no, ma’am_ in the appropriate spots, talked the receptionist into giving her a tour of the premises, ostensibly because she was interested in renting an apartment.

Honestly, she really would be, if not for the fact that the lease was six months, minimum, and she wouldn’t be in the city that long. For the moment, though, she just wanted to know the layout of the place. Specifically, how one would get into the courtyard. 

Once she knew that, it’d be easy enough to get in for herself whenever she wanted to.

The receptionist didn’t just briefly bring her by the garden, but rather through it as they cut across the courtyard. It was beautiful. Even by normal, non-“trapped in a city of concrete” standards. The complex buildings’ walls were lined with those blooming flowers she’d seen from the street, all magenta and blue and pink. There were a few, tastefully placed trees, two of them only newly planted saplings. 

Beautifly and combees drifted back and forth across the flowers. A few dustox were asleep in the tree branches, along with a hoothoot perched on one leg. A nest of pidgey sat nearby. Every one of those pokémon hated the desert so badly Astraea had only seen them in person if someone had imported them. It reminded her of the greenhouses and rose gardens in Phenac, bustling with vibrant life. 

Seeing the garden, even for only three minutes, made the apartment complex Astraea was still training out of seem so much worse. Because, gods, could anyone paint their building a color other than _gray_? 

That said, if she could sneak back in… Who cared what everything else looked like? 

When they walked back, Astraea tried to see if there was any way in from the outside. It wasn’t like Julia’s apartment building, or the others she’d been in with her, where there was a gate, maybe, that locked at certain hours, but was fairly easy to bypass with a tiny bit of determination. 

But of course, those easily accessible complexes were the ones Astraea didn’t want into. They were just some benches, a table; some dark trees. Their biggest highlight was the railing running along the second floor’s walkway to look over and make fun of the people below when it was one a.m. and there was music playing from somewhere else and it felt like they couldn’t hear you even though they definitely could. Which was cool and all, but it only meant something whenever other people were around. 

No other people required to enjoy a garden. 

Except there were no gates and the fences in the few gaps between buildings were high and not designed with ease of climbing in mind. 

Fine, whatever, she could just walk through the front door when someone besides this receptionist was around. Because she couldn’t, _couldn’t_ spend money on an apartment.

As she politely let the receptionist finish her spiel back in the lobby, she eavesdropped on the conversation occurring between the man she saw on the steps in the mornings and another woman. The topic of discussion was security. Apparently there had been a recent uptick in crime in the neighborhood—which, yes, multiple neighborhoods of displaced persons with no good safety net tended to produce—and they didn’t feel their current provisions were adequate. 

The woman he was speaking to left, eventually. The man stayed, adjusting things on an end table, and Astraea was released from the receptionist’s conversational grasp. 

She approached him. “Hi. I hope I’m not bothering you, but I couldn’t help overhearing that you’re looking to hire a trainer for security. Maybe I could help?” 

“I doubt that.” He turned to face her. “What’s your name?”

“Astraea. Astraea Meraz.”

“Roger Seacrest.” He shook her hand, sparing a glance down at Juliet. “Got a license?”

She produced it from her wallet.

“Class B and you want security work at a random apartment?”

“Not the best city to be looking for work right now. Even less of one to be a full-time trainer in.”

“Well, it’s certainly no Castelia.” He sighed. “I’m running a check on that. If it’s forged, I’ll understand, but you’d best be leaving now.”

“It’s not.”

“Alright. Next thing. How much do you expect me to pay you?”

“…About that.”

• • •

“You know, one of my friend’s brother did security for some store in Obsidia for a while,” Julia said, kicking a rock down the rail tracks. “I don’t think he enjoyed it.”

“Yeah, well, I bet he wasn’t getting a free apartment out of it!” Astraea nearly lost her balance on one of the thin tracks, Julia grabbing her arm at the last second to save her.

“No, definitely not!” She giggled, releasing Astraea’s arm and skipping a few feet ahead. “Oh man, I have so many stories leftover from that..”

The light from Julia’s rotom finally extended far enough to hit the blank wall before them. “Okay, this isn’t working too well. Any other suggestions?” Astraea asked, stepping off the tracks.

“There should be a service tunnel to the left! Maybe there? It’s quieter.” 

“Yeah, maybe.” 

Rotom zipped back to their sides, hovering between them as they walked in that direction. Bast was keeping a few steps ahead, nose in the air.

“So, any chance you know anything about Ber—”

“Rae, I can’t tell you! I’m impressed you waited this long into today to ask though.”

“I know, I know. Worth trying.”

“You know if there is any way I—Oh! Rae, look!” Julia bounced on the toes of her sneakers, pointing in front of them. Toward the back end of the tunnel, there was a lone mightyena digging at a pile of rocks. 

“Finally. Only took two hours,” Astraea whispered, pulling an empty Poké Ball from her jacket pocket. 

Bast took a few steps forward. The mightyena heard them and lifted their head, ears pushed flat against their skull. Julia backed away to the other wall, giving Astraea space to move forward unimpeded.

“She’s female. What do you think?” Astraea asked.

“No nests here that I know of. We can check around more once you’ve got her, if you want?”

"It’d make me feel better. Know where we are on the map so I can get back here if we’re wrong and I need to release?”

“You betcha!”

Astraea nodded to Bast and, without hesitating, she threw a burst of flame at Mightyena. They jumped out of the way and sprang forward, eager to engage Bast at close quarters.

It took only a few minutes before Astraea was comfortable throwing her Poké Ball. It snapped shut and Astraea watched as the light circling the button turned green. She picked it up and considered it, Bast dancing at her feet. 

That had been Bast’s first real fight, technically.

“Yay! Story time while we look for nests?” Julia asked from behind her.

Astraea pocketed the Poké Ball and leaned down to scratch behind Bast’s ears. “Please.”

• • •

After a few days, Astraea had a routine down. 

At night, she essentially had free reign of the entirety of the apartment complex—Lakeside at Neopath, following the universal tradition of uninspired apartment names—and, though there weren’t stars and the city refused to cool down the way the desert did, it was dark and quiet. The only intruders she ever encountered were the occasional rattatas and meowths prowling the back alley that tried to follow Astraea inside the employee entrance. Melanie, her new mightyena, proved to be an effective deterrent for the feral pokémon. 

So, she spent a few hours after dark periodically walking around or working on things in the lobby, then left Melanie to stay at the front overnight. Bast and Juliet, too, if they wanted to join, though Astraea quickly found herself limiting the days they did, given that neither of them were meant to be nocturnal. In the morning, she’d wake up early to retrieve Melanie and sit at the desk until Seacrest emerged from his apartment or the day’s receptionist got there. 

During the day, Seacrest always seemed to find at least one odd job, often the dealing-with-people kind, to throw at her. She couldn’t mind it. It was nice to feel useful. Plus, she’d confirmed that, yes, her previous situation had been kind of making her go insane, because the first time she’d had to listen to a person whine as she tried to figure out why their air conditioner had stopped working, she’d actively enjoyed it. Luckily, that feeling had quickly worn off. 

For the rest of her time, though, she could do whatever she wanted. She had a small studio to retreat to, which meant no more paying for a hotel, and a paycheck every week, even if it was tiny to compensate for the price of her place. There was a small, functioning, largely unoccupied arena on the second floor of the building, with a portable healing machine and an outdated PC unit in the back, so it was easy to train. She still ventured out to the abandoned apartments, since it was easier to work on long-range attacks there, but police presence in the area was slowly creeping back up and she was warier about blatantly trespassing now that she had another place to go. 

With Melanie around, she felt comfortable wandering to the lots where impromptu betting circles cropped up. Being able to fight real opponents again was a blessing, and she was making some money from it. Losing some too, but that was to be expected when her team was so fresh. As things stood, Melanie was imprecise and hard to control, but made up for it in raw strength. Bast wasn’t able to explicitly overpower anyone, but she dodged and blocked well enough that she could stay in the ring longer. 

They were both growing from the matches, though, and fighting Julia was slowly becoming a close reality. First, though, she had to shore things up with Melanie more and make sure Juliet got in a few actual matches from, well… somewhere. Astraea was still working on that part. 

The people in Peridot wouldn’t help, since there was no scenario in which Juliet could hold her own against the well-established trainers’ pokémon. Seacrest might have been willing to give her a mock fight. He kept some of the pokémon from the garden and brought them out when he ran errands, something she’d realized only when he started pushing one of them onto her. A beautifly that wouldn’t stop following her around. 

His insistence was amusing, so Astraea didn’t bother to fight it. She’d been informed that the beautifly’s name was Delilah—all of the garden regulars had names, though Astraea didn’t know half of them—and been given her Poké Ball. She liked Delilah fine and was more than happy to have an extra companion for walks around the city, but Delilah was not a fighter, not the kind of pokémon Astraea wanted to use in battles, and distinctly _not_ her pokémon.

She would be leaving sometime in the next few months, and it wouldn’t be right to take Delilah away from her home. 

• • •

The apartment complex, sporting fairly nice management and well-kept hallways, attracted families. With families came kids, from toddlers in their parent’s arms to req school kids on term break running up and down the halls to older teenagers figuring out their first job or secondary school. Astraea could barely leave her apartment without seeing a child or two.

In midday, they tended to appear in the courtyard when Astraea did. 

Two younger boys—eleven or twelve, maybe, they looked Cahira’s age—were throwing a frisbee back and forth in the grass. Juliet and Bast were playing across the path from them. There was a calm attached to the scene, helped along by the buzzing of the bugs in the flowers and the murmur of people’s conversations from the decks above.

Astraea curled up further on the bench, absent-mindedly sketching on a piece of paper attached to a clipboard. Delilah hovered by the flowers near her head. 

Things were better, though they weren’t perfect. But of _course_ they weren’t perfect. They weren’t ever going to be perfect, not with the way things stood. Perfect would only come when, at the end of the day, she went home. 

She’d assumed, coming to Reborn, the answer to that would be a phone call.

Now it felt like the only real answer was returning to her house, the same house she’d always lived in.

And, sure, it hadn’t been new when her parents had bought it over two decades ago and sometimes it took them ages before someone found the time to fix things after they broke or cracked, but it was painted light blue and it was filled with all the things they had deemed special. And there were flowers and cacti in the yard that Natalya had kept taking care of after—

“Hey, can we pet them?” One of the boys, the one with black hair and cargo shorts, was hovering a bit closer to her, right by Bast and Juliet. His friend was still on the other side of the sidewalk, clutching their frisbee to his chest.

“Go for it,” Astraea replied, before turning back to the lazy sketch of her front yard. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Bast and Juliet, happy for a stranger's enthusiastic attention, wasted no time in engaging with the boys. Things evolved into Bast and Juliet chasing the frisbee, both of them smart enough to stay out of Seacrest’s flowers without being told. The boys’ excitement was contagious as Bast leapt up to catch the frisbee in her jaws and landed perfectly poised on the grass, tail wagging. 

When Juliet returned to Astraea’s side to beg for a treat or two, Bast and their new friends followed along behind her. Astraea dumped Bast into the lap of the boy who sat down on the bench next to her.

“Are you a trainer?” the boy leaning up against the bench’s armrest asked, reaching out to pet Bast between her ears.

“Mhmm.”

“Told you,” he said, lightly shoving his friend’s shoulder. “Are you from a different region, or are you doing the league? We can tell it’s one of the two, because they don’t have fennekins just laying around here.”

“There’s probably a breeder somewhere,” she said, stroking Juliet’s fur. “But, uh, both.”

“Nah, no breeders. We’ve looked,” the other kid said. “Have you fought Julia yet?”

“Nope. Soon, though.”

“My sister was friends with Julia in req school,” he volunteered. “She used to come over here all the time.”

“She’s the only gym leader we actually know.” 

Astraea handed Juliet to the boy still standing. “You two would’ve been five or six when Julia was in req school.”

“She’d remember us though! I’d put money on it.” 

Stifling a laugh, she said, “Oh, I’m sure of it. So, what, you two want to be trainers?” 

They launched into enthusiastic responses together, stumbling over each other as they tried to explain to Astraea how the trainer school entrance exams worked in Reborn. She couldn’t help but beam at them as they talked about the pokémon they hoped to have a chance at raising and all the things they’d heard from others about how to be the best possible trainer. 

“Okay, but, have either of you two actually fought in a pokémon battle before?”

The boys shook their heads. “Our school doesn’t have us do mock stuff,” one said.

“Mom won’t let me use Meowth,” said the other.

“Want to try it out? You can use the two of them.” 

The boy on the bench seemed about ready to vibrate off it, as excited as he was. Astraea stood, tucking her clipboard back into her bag. “Alright, but we’re going in the arena upstairs, because if _you_ set the grass on fire, _I_ get in trouble.” 

As the boys pulled ahead of her in their rush to the doors, she picked Bast back up just long enough to whisper, “Make it fair.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> starting team? check. rae kinda has things figured out? check.  
> which means mosswater's up next!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy new years! here is another Very Long chapter aha

The sky was a dreary gray, with even darker storm clouds advancing from the east, as Astraea approached the power plant with Bast.

Julia had texted Astraea at 7:45 a.m, nearly a full hour before she was ever up on a weekday, about _something_. Julia still hadn’t explained what exactly that _something_ was, just asked Astraea to meet her at the plant at noon. Astraea had been teetering on the edge of agreeing to it, solely because Julia had mentioned Florinia would be present, and then Julia had added that Astraea should bring her pokémon and that had sealed the deal. Needing pokémon handy could mean absolutely nothing, but it could also mean making progress toward working phone lines, functional train station construction sites; any answers at all. 

Even half a chance at that was well worth the possibility of wasting a day. Hell, of wasting a week. 

…Two weeks would probably be pushing it, though.

Once they reached the power plant’s lot, Bast ran a few feet ahead to the doors. They swished open and a gust of cold air rushed out to meet Astraea. When she made it inside, she found Bast had abruptly sat down by the entrance, head cocked as she watched the scene at the front desk. The receptionist—it was always the same girl—was standing, arguing across the counter with some guy. Astraea couldn’t make out what it was about. 

She gestured for Bast to follow her and headed toward the back rooms, trying to slip through the lobby without attracting either party’s attention. She made it all the way to the doorway before the receptionist said, exasperated, “She’s not there, Astraea! She’s out still, she’ll be back in a few minutes, and, no, you _can’t_ just go wander around in the back.” She pivoted back to the guy leaning forward against the counter. “Which is what I’ve been trying to tell you for five minutes, Fern. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do with my time than this.” She stepped out from behind the desk, walking close enough to the guy—Fern—that Astraea couldn’t hear her next, hissed sentence.

He waited until she was almost out of the room to reply. “Except I did, Marcia, and I don’t see consequences. Do you?”

She paused in the doorway, glaring at him, tapping one shoe against the tile. After a second, her attention snapped to Astraea. “You know, don’t think I haven’t realized how you are. You’d better not go past the lobby while I’m gone. Just because Julia wants to think it’s fine, doesn’t mean it actually is.” She spun on one heel and left. 

Astraea glanced at Bast and then at Fern, who seemed extremely unbothered by everything around him. “Had to make the desk girl cry, huh?” she said, crossing her arms.

He scoffed. “You don’t even know her name, why do you care?”

“Because she got mad at me and I didn’t even do anything!” Down by her feet, Bast yipped in agreement. “Besides, man, she’s just doing her job. You shouldn’t be mean to her.”

“I’ve known her since she was twelve, I can say whatever I want to her. Not my fault if she’s thin-skinned.”

“It’s funny, people normally go the other way with that. You know you’re basically just admitting to being a complete asshole, right?” 

He actually looked at her for the first time. “Hey, however you want to see it. You should scram anyways, Julia’s busy.” 

“Yeah, so the girl said.” _Wait, what_ was _her name?_

“No, I mean when she gets back, she’s going to be busy for the rest of the day. She’s not gonna have time for you.” 

“I’m here because she specifically asked me to meet her, jackass,” Astraea snapped. “I don’t just prance into people’s places of work and expect them to be available to me, though I’m getting the impression you _are_ the kind of person who does that, so I can see why it might be hard for you to comprehend that other people know how to be polite.” 

“You’re annoying.” He stepped away from the counter, toward her. “Oh, I see. You have a fennekin. Julie’s picked up another stray.” 

“ _Excuse_ me—”

“I will never understand why she thinks third-rate trainers who don’t have a single gym badge, and are probably never gonna get one, are worth her time.”

“Oh, fuck you. I’ve had a career; I bet you ain’t had shit.”

“Can’t have been that good of a career, if you’re here and they gave you a starter,” he said, walking back to the desk. He pulled out a phone and gave it his full attention.

Astraea looked at Bast, all narrowed eyes and fluffed-out tail. They were still standing by the doorway leading into the back. She should just walk away. Forget the conversation even happened. Someone who berated a receptionist because he didn’t get his way was not worth her time, whatever he may have said to her. 

Fern walked out the door, still looking down at his phone.

She followed.

“Hey,” she said, once she’d mostly caught up, smiling when he startled a bit at her voice. “You think you’re all that, fine. You want me to actually believe it, though, you’ve gotta back it up.” 

“Not worth my time.” 

“Fifty bucks. It’s free money if you’re actually good and I’m actually bad, isn’t it?” She put her hands on her hips. “Or what? Are you just all talk?”

He sighed. “A hundred. Three-on-three, singles. Substitutions either way.” 

“Deal.”

“Okay.” He put space between them in the lot, pulling a Poké Ball from his pocket. “Can we hurry up, though?”

“Oh, uh—Here?”

“If you’re actually concerned about hitting the dishes _thirty_ feet away from you, you’re an awful trainer. There’s a fence behind you, I’m not gonna hit anyone. And I really don’t want to have to circle back and deal with you at a later date.”

“Fine, whatever.” Honestly, she was surprised he’d even agreed. She returned Bast to her Poké Ball. “Okay.” She snatched Juliet’s Poké Ball out of her clip. This would be good practice for her, wouldn’t it? “Ready.” 

He tossed his Poké Ball at the same time she did hers. Her ball’s auto-return activated and it snapped back to her hand, but she stayed focused on the space between them. The white and red light cleared out in a split second. 

Sandile.

 _Well, shit._ She had known he’d use whatever he had that’d give Bast the worst time, but of _course_ she’d stepped right into a wall by trying to play off that.

“Oh, this is kind of sad.”

Astraea blocked out his voice and tried to focus on the match in front of her. Juliet, already at the ready, sprung out of the way the first time Sandile rushed toward her. She really was such a _great_ pick. Psychic energy as weak as hers would just bounce off Sandile and any charged bite from them was definitely going to hurt Juliet. “Spin back to face them on the next dodge.” Juliet obliged, kicking up spare gravel. “Disarming voice.” Really, Juliet didn’t have enough power behind the action for it to meet the official standards of the move, but it did its job regardless, the blast of sound hitting around Sandile’s feet and knocking them away. 

“And here I thought you weren’t going to get a move off at all,” Fern said.

 _Just ignore him._ “Keep—”

Sandile had recovered and pinned down Juliet without a word from Fern. He sounded disinterested as he guided Sandile through their next action and Astraea focused all her effort on getting Juliet disentangled from Sandile. 

Juliet managed to hit Sandile in the face with another wave of sound, sending them tumbling back toward Fern. “Well, that was lucky,” he said as Sandile stumbled back to their feet, disoriented. Juliet did the same and Astraea returned her to her Poké Ball before Sandile could make another move. 

Astraea released Melanie onto their make-shift arena. She should have started with her. Would have, if she’d been thinking logically. At least there was still plenty of time for her to fix things. Sandile was fast though, faster than she’d expected. They _just_ managed to escape Melanie’s charged bite. Her jaws snapped shut on open air and pieces of ice scattered on the ground in front of her. She spun to face Sandile, breath visible as she panted. 

Astraea really needed to think things through better, instead of gambling money on her perception of practical strangers. 

A sand column erupted under Melanie’s back left paw, destabilizing her. She sprung away before the next three could materialize and trap her. The successful one collapsed, its particles joining Sandile’s other failed attempts on the ground. 

Fern gave Sandile a surprising amount of leeway in their move choices. Astraea had to dictate every move to Melanie—but there were plenty of reasons for that! She was unused to a trainer, she was dark; she was stubborn—and Fern had said two, maybe three things outside of criticizing her. 

Sandiles were more receptive to trainers than their evolutions, though. 

That was all it was. 

Ice spread across Sandile’s shoulder as Melanie made contact and dug in deep. She was too big for a tiny sandile to escape from, even though they tried. 

Fern returned Sandile to their Poké Ball and drew his next one, no smartass remark in sight. He threw toward the sky and a rowlet emerged from the data stream, flapping their wings. “Stay up high,” Fern said. “Even out of jumping distance.”

Melanie wasn’t suited to long-range attacks; the rowlet’s line specialty was avoiding close combat. _…Is it worth trying?_

“What? Can’t figure out a first move? Fine,” Fern said. “Razor leaf.” 

They were fighting on a flat surface, nothing like the lots Astraea had been working in, with benches and trashcans easy to reach and fair game for Melanie to use as a launchpad when facing flying targets. Outside the plant, there were only fences sitting too far away. 

Astraea gritted her teeth. Rowlet was doing a glorious job of staying away as they worked to map their blades of energy to Melanie’s movements. She tried to have Melanie jump, reach out, and pull Rowlet down with her claws, but instead she was met with a beautifully executed aerial display that ended with Rowlet’s glowing white wing cutting across her exposed underbelly. 

Melanie crashed into the ground and, slowly, rose to her paws. Up in the sky, Rowlet taunted her with excited chirps and barrel rolls. 

Sighing, Astraea switched into Bast. 

Within seconds, Bast sprung out of her starting position and took off across the gravel, nimbly avoiding Rowlet’s attacks. Halfway across the open space she jumped up and turned in midair to launch a volley of fire. Her flames burned straight through the blades sent spinning toward her and hit Rowlet. They went spiraling down, pulling up just soon enough to avoid hitting the ground. 

Bast landed neatly on her paws, facing Astraea from across the arena. 

As Rowlet tried to ascend back into the sky, Bast rushed to meet them. She caught one of their wings in her jaws, though she was rewarded for it by Rowlet smacking her across the face with their free wing. She let go and they flew a ways up, shaky and favoring their injured side. 

Rowlet and Bast were both skilled at avoiding attacks, but neither of them were capable of withstanding much damage. Especially not Rowlet, when Bast’s main weapon was her fire. After taking another hit, they fluttered to the ground, exhausted and clearly not about to continue the fight, the feathers on one wing lightly singed. Bast was panting hard, but not too injured.

Fern recalled Rowlet. Maybe it was wishful thinking on Astraea’s part, but she could have sworn he hesitated before sending out his next pokémon: A roselia. 

_Easy._ A few hits from Bast and they would be down without any trouble. They didn’t even have the air advantage Rowlet had. 

Roselia shifted their weight and glanced back toward Fern as the rose blossoms on the end of their arms unfurled. Their flowers were the traditional red and blue; the spikes along their body gleamed in the light. 

Bast shook out her fur and sprung forward, headed straight for her target.

Fern didn’t respond; Roselia stayed where they were. When Bast was only a bit away, Roselia raised their red rose, pointed it directly at Bast, and sprayed a cloud of spores. Astraea didn’t have time to say anything, but Bast leapt out of the way on instinct, landing hard on her front right leg but managing to avoid the cloud. Astraea winced as Bast hit the ground. 

“Okay, fine,” Fern said, crossing his arms. “Toxic spikes.” 

“Burn them,” Astraea called, even as Roselia was already gleefully spinning in a circle, the thorns lining the ground around them with poison. Bast was forced back, though she managed to incinerate the spikes that almost landed on her. 

It quickly became a game of cat and mouse. Bast burned away the spikes lining the ground. Roselia sent out magical leaf after magical leaf, the move executed perfectly. Bast was forced to dodge out of the way and Roselia replaced their spikes. 

“Please do something interesting,” Fern said. “I’m getting bored.” 

“Screw you.” 

Burning away the spikes wasn’t working, so… she shouldn’t burn them away. Bast couldn’t get close enough to aim properly, but she could still jump, try a different angle.

Bast responded to Astraea’s order quickly. Fern tried to get Roselia to adjust and paralyze Bast, but her fire tore through the spores and continued on to Roselia. They staggered back under the heat and, by the time Bast landed on the ground, seemed done for. The leaf-like structure encircling their main stem was singed and their roses were firmly closed back up. 

Astraea didn’t feel comfortable with them taking another hard hit, nor was she confident that Bast could get in close enough to deliver something less dangerous. “Is that game?” she asked, rather than proceeding. “I feel like that’s game. I feel like I’m owed money specifically.” 

“I don’t know if I’d call it game, but she’s certainly decided it is,” Fern said, taking a few steps toward Astraea. Roselia had sat down in the middle of her spike fortress, one closed rose draped across one bent leg. She started chittering at Bast calmly. 

Astraea walked up to meet him. As she did, Roselia apparently convinced Bast to eradicate the spikes on the ground via flame. “There,” she said. “I won and you’re wrong.” 

He laughed, looking more skeptical than he was supposed to, as he pulled his wallet out. “You’re slow even though you have fast pokémon, take too long to think things through, and don’t have a single plan at the ready when you start. Which might be an acceptable strategy when it comes to that dark type you’ve got, but it’s sure as hell not for the other two.” He held out her money. “Regardless, you got lucky at the end, so you can have your prize.” 

She snatched it out of his hand. “Really? I beat you and that’s what you got?”

“You’re entirely reliant on a fox someone else trained. What else is there to say?” He shrugged, then walked away, back toward the plant’s doors. “C’mon, ‘Selia.” 

Astraea tucked the bills into her pocket. Evidently, no one had ever taught him that just because you could say something, didn’t mean you should.

Besides, the nuance of a situation (She was following league rules! Even if Bast came with some training, she’d still had to work with her!) was supposed to add to an argument, not have to be thrown out the window for said argument to work at all. Generally, that was a sign it was time to find a new argument, because the first one was shit anyways.

She followed after him. “You know, you’re not better than me. Roselia grounds herself too hard in her starting area; Sandile might be good at distancing, but they sure couldn’t lock a bite on my little espurr; and, while I know rowlets aren’t the fasting flying types to exist, I feel like you should be more prepared for such a common strategy from a mobile fire type.”

He turned to face her. “You—”

“Astraea! Hey, Rae!” Julia. That was definitely Julia. No one else was so excited about existing in the world.

Astraea glanced over her shoulder and found Julia waving at her from across the lot. A woman was walking with her, which… Right. Florinia. 

Forget Fern, Florinia was who she was interested in. 

Honestly, the few times Astraea had thought of Florinia before, she’d been picturing a toned-down version of Julia: long, straight hair and outfits that leaned a bit more toward professional but were in line with the latest trends regardless. Not the bobbed, curly hair and sensible black jeans on the person walking toward her. She had on a teal and white windbreaker with a hood, too, and Astraea was really starting to regret not bringing something to block out the rain. The sky just kept getting darker.

Julia practically skipped toward them, but Florinia’s pace was measured. Finally, she was close enough for Astraea to really make out her face and—

Ah. The hair color wasn’t a coincidence. Florinia and Fern were definitely related.

_Thanks universe, very cool._

Astraea brought her arms up across her chest.

“Hi! Glad you’re here!” Julia bounced in place. “This is Florinia! She’s amazing, as you know. Rini, this is Rae. Hopefully, she’s coming with us! And I see you’ve met Fern. By the way, totally warned you this was going to happen,” she said to Florinia, gesturing between Astraea and Fern. “Fern is Rini’s little brother. Whatever mean thing he said to you, please ignore it. We don’t know why he’s like that.” 

“ _Whatever_ , Julia,” Fern said from behind her, and some of the tension Astraea felt evaporated.

“Oh, what? No, there’s nothing,” she replied, stepping back a bit. “We’re cool.”

“Aww, you don’t need to be nice, but it’s so sweet that you are,” Julia said earnestly. “Okay, so, what we’re—Well, first I need to go into my office for a sec, but, Rae, I’ll explain on the way! I don’t think—Also, sorry we’re late, we got caught up with—Well, Fern knows, and I doubt you really care. C’mon!”

Julia headed through the doors. Astraea took a deep breath and recalled Bast, trying to pick through Julia’s last rushed sentence for a tangible thought. It really didn’t seem like there was one. 

Fern returned Roselia to her Poké Ball with a heavy sigh. “How much caffeine did you and Ame let her have and why is the answer you’re about to give me not ‘none’?” 

“The damage was done by the time I arrived,” Florinia said, her voice level and quiet. She nodded at Astraea, a fairly awkward acknowledgment, but an acknowledgment all the same.

Astraea smiled at her before hurrying to follow Julia inside. She didn’t catch up to her until they were well past the lobby. “So, what am I maybe supposed to be doing?”

“Here’s the deal!” Julia was looking over her shoulder as she climbed the stairs and Astraea half-expected her to trip at some point. “As you know, the police arrested someone two weeks ago when Grandview blew up. And, as you also know, literally nothing came of that… until this morning! When Ame woke me up at five a.m. to tell me that, one, they know where these people are holed up in Peridot, and, two, the next thing they would like to blow up is apparently—”she made it to the second floor landing and emphatically spun in a circle—“my building.” 

“This building?” Astraea joined her at the top of the stairs. “Like, the building we’re currently standing in?”

“Don’t worry!”

No, Astraea was going to worry, actually.

“Anyway, since the police are stupidly busy, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands! Florinia graciously volunteered a few hours of her time despite the, uh, current situation in Obsidia, and Fern’s here too, I guess. You should come help.”

“Wait, what situation in Obsidia?”

“Our Little Shop of Horrors recreation in Jasper and Beryl has spawned a sequel.” 

“Gods.”

“So, you in or what?”

“…I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Walk into a building where there were explosives? Of her own free will? When people were definitely planning on using the explosives anyways and probably had no qualms about setting them off? No. No, no, and no.

“Look,” Julia said, glancing down the stairs and then stepping a bit closer. “Part of the reason I’m asking you is because, if there’s an opportunity, Ame and the police chief want us to find out whatever we can about these people while we’re there and if you’re with us, if you know whatever we find, it’s just because you were helping, right? But if you’re not with us…” Julia trailed off, shrugging. “They’re calling themselves ‘Team Meteor,’ by the way. And styling themselves after groups like Rocket and Plasma totally cements the intentional terrorism thing! This is a thing I’ve known since literally the day after the station went up. Before we even talked for the first time! But I’m only able to tell you now because you’re coming with us.” There were footsteps on the stairs. “I’m not blind, I’m know it’s dangerous and asking a lot, but you’re the one who’s always asking me questions and I—” She broke off as Fern and Florinia made it within earshot. 

Fern pushed past them and headed farther down the hallway. Florinia stopped next to Julia.

Julia looked at her, grinning. “Rae’s coming with us! Right, Astraea?”

She took a deep breath to steady herself. “I’m coming with you.” _Against all better judgement._

“Okay.” Florinia seemed extremely unenthused by the prospect, which was not helping Astraea feel like her presence was an actual good thing. “Julia, do you remember Mosswater’s floorplan?” 

“Nope! I know you do though!” Julia started back toward her office. “Also, I made sure to email myself a copy of the blueprints before we left.”

Astraea trailed behind the two of them, scanning the hallways on instinct. How the hell were they letting people work there still? Maybe they didn’t want to freak people out over a bomb threat, given everything else going on already, but… Shouldn’t something be done? _Surely_ the building wasn’t a safe place to be? 

Right before the hallway turned into the catwalk overlooking the production floor, she looked to her right and saw Fern standing at a healing machine in the room at the end of the other hall. Julia and Florinia were still walking ahead, talking. Astraea already hadn’t been paying attention to them. It wouldn’t matter if she broke off for a minute. 

She half-jogged down the hallway. “Fern, wait.”

He rolled his eyes at her, but stepped away from the machine. 

“Thanks.” She slipped Bast, Melanie, and Juliet’s Poké Balls into three of the empty slots before shutting the lid and turning the machine on. It started its preliminary scans.

“Are you actually coming?” he asked. 

“Apparently.”

“You’re just going to slow us down.”

Astraea sighed. “No, I won’t. And, again, I beat you,” she said, irritation coloring her words.

“In a regulated match. Are you really so stupid you think anyone we run into is going to follow meaningless rules?”

“No, I’m not. And, quite frankly, I would have done even better against you if I hadn’t been following league rules.”

“Right. ‘Cause that’s _definitely_ true.”

“‘Pinned pokémon may not be withdrawn from battle until successful separation from their opponent.’ I would’ve withdrawn Espurr earlier, Mightyena would’ve been on Sandile before they could recover. Would’ve knocked about two minutes off.” 

“Really doesn’t fix any of your other glaring flaws, but, okay, quote a handbook.” 

“You are impossible. Good thing that doesn’t matter, since Julia doesn’t seem to care what you think.” 

The healing machine finished its assessment and its timer popped up with an accompanying chime. Ten minutes and twenty-five seconds. “You should talk less,” Fern said. “People would like you more.”

“Same to you,” Astraea replied as he walked out of the room. She used the momentary solitude to stamp her foot like a child, the shockwave that travelled up her leg from hitting the tiled floor enough for her to realize how meaningless it was. 

When she made it back to Julia’s office, Julia was trying to change out of heels while still standing, using Florinia’s arm as support. There was a building blueprint pulled up on her computer screen, rotated so it faced more than the room’s back wall. “Okay, what’s the plan here?” Julia asked. “I would like to submit my vote for ‘blow up the front door and charge in!’”

Astraea would like to not—

“No,” Florinia said as Julia let go of her arm, successfully in tennis shoes. “There are multiple side entrances. Even if every one is locked, utilizing one of them will be quieter than proceeding from the front. The loading dock doors are off limits as well, for the same reason.” 

“I still get to blow something up, right?” 

“Are they old enough to be key locks? ‘Cause I could just open the door like a normal human if they are,” Astraea said.

“Or me,” Fern added from the chair he was sitting in.

“It’s not noted,” Florinia said, looking over the blueprint, “but it’s doubtful. However, for a card lock, there will be a terminal I can access. Either way, no use of Electrode or Geodude required, Julia. Though, given that it is you, you will likely find a use for them regardless.” 

Julia pouted, sitting down in her office chair. “Fine.” She drew the word out dramatically. “We decided earlier that since there’s two main wings and four of us, it’s probably best to split up once we’re inside.”

Fern sat straight up. “Okay, woah—”

“It is the most efficient—”

“No, that’s not what I have a problem with, Flo. My problem is that _she_ definitely already decided how we’re going to go about this,” he said, pointing at Julia. “You two are not sticking me with her.”

Oh, Astraea was “her,” wasn’t she? How nice. 

“Why not?” Julia crossed her legs. “Rae’s perfectly capable. You can handle yourself, can’t you? Besides, it’s only for the first bit, just to make sure there are no surprises. We’ll meet back up way before the main rooms! And I mean, you’re fine with it, Rae, aren’t you?”

“Um.” Astraea leaned back against the wall. “Sure.” 

Fern looked at her, then at Florinia. “And you see no problem with this at all?”

“No.”

“Well in that case, of course it’s fine!” His sarcasm was unmissable. 

Julia blew right past it. “Great! Then we should go!” She stood up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Astraea replied, ready to just be out of the building. Florinia closed the open tabs on Julia’s computer. Fern stood, but didn’t say anything. 

She still didn’t actually know where they were going. “Mosswater” meant nothing to her, nor did the fact there was a loading dock really serve to narrow down the options. Besides that, putting up with Fern was… Well, she was rightfully uneasy about being in a terrorist den in general. Add in the fact that she was supposed to trust him while they were in there? Just because Julia apparently did? 

She could put up a fight just fine and he had already proved himself to be competent in a battle, but that didn’t guarantee he could or would watch out for another person. That, she was more inclined to trust Julia with. Hell, she would take Florinia, too, if only because the other woman was a gym leader. Societal obligations were always a fun reason to make sure your companion wasn’t murdered.

But, no, she got Fern. Fern, who had already made it clear several times over that he wanted nothing to do with her. Which, whatever. People didn’t have to like her. But if she was going to be stuck with them doing something dangerous, she would much rather prefer they did. 

Even when she went to retrieve her Poké Balls from the healing machine, he made a point of getting in her way and taking his first. 

Outside, it had started raining. Not so hard that the street wasn’t visible, but enough to make for a hot, humid; uncomfortable walk. Julia cheered and threw her arms up, spinning in a circle. “This is totally proof that everything’s gonna go great!” she said, apparently to no one. 

Astraea braced herself and stepped out of the building, letting the rain hit her. She hadn’t brought her bag; she didn’t have a spare sweater. And she didn’t even own an umbrella. 

That needed to be fixed shortly. Maybe Seacrest had a spare one somewhere? She’d have to ask when she made it back to the apartments.

 _If_ she made it back to the apartments. 

Behind her, Fern was complaining. 

She heard Florinia say, “You were told it was going to rain,” her words almost lost to the sound of water hitting the pavement. Florinia brushed by her, pulling up the hood on her windbreaker, and drew level with Julia. 

Astraea paused a second to let Fern catch up with her. 

Maybe he’d warm up if she played nice. It didn’t hurt to try, at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rae: fite me (ง'̀-'́)ง  
> fern: okay (ง'̀-'́)ง  
> rae: wait what no--
> 
> okay no but for real, i heavily dislike writing battles. i don't even like writing the rare fight scenes i have to for my other projects, then throw in that the action isn't even happening via the pov character? Yikes. but i am trying starting now bc there's at least three fights down the road in this that i both don't want to skip over and have a _very specific_ picture of in my head that i want to do right by sdkjs


	8. Chapter 8

Mosswater, as it turned out, was one of the many large, oppressive factories crowding the west end of Peridot. Like most of its companions, it looked old-school industrial, was probably a huge contributor to the general layer of smog coating the city, and rested far too close to the waterfront for Astraea’s comfort. She hugged its looming wall with its tiny, thin overhang to avoid the rain as their party of four drew near, finding herself relatively impressed with the location choice. It was a huge building, no doubt equipped with an astounding amount of equipment and storage space, and, yet, the most attention anyone would ever give it would be to pass it on the street and say something like, _What a shame they let all those things operate this close to the schools._

Their group passed the shuttered main entrance and, from where Astraea was standing, she could see the loading dock as well. There were two trucks parked in the open drive, the first a non-descript beige, the second bright white, and no other sign of life. Florinia pulled a card out of her wallet and swiped it across the terminal on the wall next to a nearby side door. It flashed green and there was an audible click from the door’s lock. 

Without waiting, Julia dragged the door open and stepped inside. Astraea waited until Florinia and Fern had followed before entering.

The smell was the first thing that properly registered, followed closely by the grinding, overpowering noise of machinery in the background. Astraea took a quick, instinctive step back to try and save herself from both, then resigned herself to her fate and fully stepped into the room, letting the door swing shut behind her.

Julia had pulled her shirt up to cover the lower part of her face. “Ewww, why is it like that?” she squeaked, voice muffled against the cotton.

“The wine hue indicates high levels of pollutants,” Florinia said. She was leaned over a railing, eyes fixed on whatever was below. 

Astraea took a few steps forward to properly see. “Oh…” It was a vat of water. Practically purple, it looked like an entire fleet of muk had found their way inside. Or just a truck worth of chemical waste. “I think that might be an understatement.”

The noise from the machines grew louder for a moment and the water disturbed, sending a wave crashing against the side of the container closest to Florinia. She took a sudden step back as drops slung onto the railing. 

“Ugh, who wants to bet this is getting shoved back into Azurine Lake without any kind of precautions?” Julia asked. “No wonder it’s so bad!” She walked up to the railing and leaned over, farther than Florinia had, despite the splash risk. 

“Okay, enough, I’m sure every other factory is doing it too. Can we get a move on?” Fern asked.

Florinia walked over and held out the key card she’d used on the door. It seemed meant for Astraea, but Fern closed the gap between them and snatched it away before she could take it. Florinia dropped her hand to her side and put distance between them again. “That is the original card Ame obtained from the arrestee. Julia and I have a clone. While, provided we are all able to proceed from the doors in this room, both cards should function as intended, if it stops, inform me immediately.”

“Pretty sure we’ll have bigger problems if it suddenly stops working, but, yeah, whatever,” Fern said, examining the card. 

“There is the potential that only some of the doors—most probably those concealing sensitive information—are coded to ensure a card is not being used in simultaneous locations. It is a slim potential, but it is one nonetheless.”

“Makes sense,” Astraea said, managing to get a glimpse of the exposed barcode on the card. She’d never bothered to learn how key card locks worked… Maybe it was about time to learn? “Thank you.” 

“Be careful.”

“Always am,” Fern said, already halfway to the left door. 

“You were not the intended recipient of my previous statement.” Florinia raised her voice slightly from its normal, soft volume to be heard across the room. “Permission for you to be life-endangeringly reckless: granted.” 

“Thanks.” Fern pressed the card against the terminal, and it lit up green. 

Astraea had to do an undignified half-jog to get there before the door slammed shut in her face.

It locked behind them with an ominous click. The extra wall between them and the machinery dulled its sounds, allowing Astraea to hear the rain from outside bouncing against Mosswater’s roof. As she and Fern stood there, it turned into a torrent pounding against the metal. 

She saw Fern glare at the door. 

“I like her,” Astraea said, aiming it at the wall and voicing it only to annoy him. 

“Seriously?” Fern gave her a skeptical glance. “Can’t imagine why.”

“Wow!” Astraea pulled out Bast’s Poké Ball, just to hold tight. “She seems pleasant.”

“She is not aiming for pleasant; she is aiming for perfectly impartial,” he said, looking through the window on the door nearest them. “And you are reading your—What? Chronic need to be liked?—into it.”

“Have you ever tried being nice to someone? You might just find you enjoy it.”

“Never anything wrong with saying the truth.” He started down the hallway before them. “People used to call her ‘Flobot’ ‘cause of how she acts. Ergo, emotionless. Our entire, uh, _discussion_ earlier started ‘cause you got upset that Marcia hates you. Ergo, chronic need to be liked. And all I’m saying is, that doesn’t really strike me as the best personality pairing.” 

“Maybe. But if there’s nothing wrong with saying the truth… You’re being an ass right now because she just pissed you off, not because you actually don’t think we’d get along. _Ergo_ , you’re a self-centered brat who doesn’t like his sister paying more attention to someone else than she does to him. And if you say ‘ergo’ one more time, I’m going to leave you here.”

Fern rolled his eyes in a manner that implied she was the most annoying, least intelligent person he had ever had the misfortune of interacting with, but provided no further commentary. 

In Astraea’s eyes, that counted as a win. 

Ironically, she felt more at ease about their situation now that they were actually in the middle of it. And Fern had never seemed that bothered in the first place, just irritated by her mere presence. It helped that, though there was silent machinery dotting almost all the areas they entered and every overhead light in the building seemed to be on, there were no people to be found. 

After a few hallways, Fern asked, “Why’s Julia making me put up with you?” He was conscientious enough to keep his voice down. 

“Do you care?”

“Not really. I just know she had better options.”

“Aw, well, I’m sure she had better options than you, too,” she said, holding back a laugh. “Come on, you’re in the middle of having to put up with me while doing something that is potentially really dangerous, so you’re… What? Purposefully antagonizing me? You don’t know me at all! If I didn’t have morals, this could easily backfire on you. Gods know, I am not keen on getting in a situation where I have to trust you.”

“Admitting you need me to protect you, huh?”

“Y’know, if we get out of here unscathed, there’s a good chance I’ll—”

“Oh, shit.” Fern froze in the crossing of two hallways, staring to his right. 

Astraea hurried to him, just in time to hear the man standing in the next crossroads’s curious “Who—?”

Her instinct was to go, because there was suddenly a large granbull headed their way, but Fern’s instinct apparently was to fight. Despite a starting fumble, he managed to get his pokémon out of their Poké Ball. Astraea expected Roselia, but it was a servine that emerged and braced themselves. 

After it sunk in there was no alternative way out, Astraea released Bast. 

It didn’t take Bast a command to realize hitting Granbull dead-on with a ball of fire was a good idea. They kept moving forward straight through it and vines extended from the foliage around Servine’s neck and snaked forward to wrap around Granbull’s paws, sending them tumbling down before they could get very far. Granbull was disoriented enough to stop moving forward completely, stumbling awkwardly to their paws; trying and failing to remove themselves from the vines. 

The man was headed down the hallway, regardless of Bast and Servine’s presence, a second Poké Ball in his hand. 

“C’mon, move,” Astraea said, reaching out to shove Fern down the hallway. The only other option was to aim for the man and Astraea was realizing, far too late in the day, that she wasn’t prepared to make that call. Luckily, Fern complied, and she didn’t have to. Servine withdrew their vines from Granbull and both their pokémon followed after them.

The first door they reached, thankfully, had a window for Astraea to look through. The room was empty save for some desks and computers. “Here, give me the card, give me the card.”

Fern looked at her incredulously. “What? No.” He pressed it against the terminal, closer to him than to her. 

She wrenched open the door. 

They made it inside and far away from the window. She heard the man’s footsteps, moving quickly, as he passed by them. Once he was gone, she let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Well, so much for anything resembling the element of surprise.” 

Fern stepped away from her, toward the computers. Servine followed after him. 

“Should we tell Florinia and Julia?”

“Nah,” he said, booting up one of them. “If it’s a problem, they’ll realize for themselves.”

She looked over his shoulder at the screen, now asking for a log-in. “You know what to do with that?”

“Not really.”

“Think Florinia would?”

“Well, I’m sure,” he said, a sudden bite to his words, “but she’s not here, is she?”

“Maybe we should—”

“Nope. Come on, let’s go.” He stood up, headed back to the door. 

“Okay, no. Absolutely not.” The _entire point_ of her being there was to find out whatever she could. She was not going to just throw away something that could potentially be important because Fern wanted to rush. The computer she had no idea what to do with, but…

Her eyes landed on a fleet of filing cabinets. They leaned against the back wall, paint flaking off near their handles and drawers. Surely there’d be something there? And any lock on something like that would be breakable. 

“What are you doing?” Fern asked as she set about trying to open the top drawer. 

“Finding things out. Watch the door.”

“Woman, leave the damn filing cabinet.” 

Pulling open the drawer, it felt way too light. “No. What if it’s important?”

There was nothing inside. 

“See, _this_ is what I meant,” Fern said, apparently oblivious to her discovery. Had he actually gone to watch the door? She hadn’t expected him to. “You are going to get us cornered.” His muttered, Oressian curse was the kind of thing she was used to hearing from particularly put-out opponents in matches. 

…Right. She hadn’t even registered that he’d clearly understood her during their match. It was so, so common at Peridot’s informal rings that she’d just stopped clinging to the idea of having an advantage at all. She moved to the filing cabinet to the left. “I don’t see why taking two minutes to do this is an issue.”

“Hello? We’re standing in a room with only one door.”

Second cabinet seemed empty, too. She moved on. “It feels important. If you didn’t want to deal with all this, maybe you shouldn’t have—”

“Shut up,” Fern said. “No, actually shut up! Someone’s coming.” 

Astraea bit her lip, staring into the equally empty third cabinet. The only sound in the room was the quiet humming of the computer they’d left on. 

Footsteps passed by the room. There was definitely more than one person. Astraea could just make out the sounds of a conversation. They passed by the room without entering. 

The murmurs faded and Fern relaxed. “Please tell me this little detour has at least been worthwhile.”

She sighed. “Not really.” She could feel her heart beating in her chest, faster than it should be. There really was only one door. If they had come inside…

“Great, so glad you wasted all our time then, I mean, truly—” From her spot by the computer, Bast growled. “Oh, be quiet.”

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Astraea snapped, shutting the cabinet. “It was still worth a look.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“I don’t think anyone but you would think that.” She pushed past him and carefully opened the door. There was no one in the hallway. Apprehensive, she stared back down it. 

Fern followed her. “Maybe you—”

She shushed him, gesturing up the hall to where the people had headed, and he shut up, thankfully. She returned Bast to her Poké Ball. While she was quiet, Astraea didn’t see the need for any risks. It would take only a few seconds to get her back.

Fern left Servine out. 

She tried to keep from making noise as they proceeded onward. It was a futile effort. Nothing would completely muffle footsteps. They were passing by doors, some windowed, some not, and she kept waiting, waiting, _waiting_ for one to open at the wrong time. For someone inside to see her and realize she wasn’t meant to be there. 

Maybe it wasn’t too obvious… She looked her age. Twenty was old enough to be in a bona fide terrorist group, right? 

Probably. 

Oh, who was she kidding? She was wearing a loose t-shirt and shorts. Her hair was still damp from the storm outside. She did _not_ look like she belonged there. 

“Wait,” Fern whispered.

She stopped and turned back to him. He tapped a sign on the wall by the latest door. 

Stairs. 

Astraea pulled the surprisingly light door open. It didn’t sound like anyone was coming down. 

“I’m starting to think we should have brought a map in with us,” she said once the door had shut behind them. 

Fern shrugged and started up. 

The second floor looked exactly the same as the first. Gray everything, just like the city outside, silver and black the accent colors of choice. The occasional piece of machinery lay scattered in the hallway. Once, a desk. Another time, a lone chair. And still no people. After their first run-in, she’d been expecting a fight to get anywhere, in or out. 

Whether their luck was good or bad, she still wasn’t sure. 

A good while from the stairs, Fern used the key card to let them into another room, and Florinia and Julia were on the other side of it. 

“Finally!” Julia hurried across the room to them. “I was starting to get worried! Also, we have a small problem.”

“Fern, give me back the original I.D,” Florinia said. She was standing by a shut set of double doors. 

“Why?” Fern asked as he walked to her. 

“Well, behind here is supposed to lead into the main rooms,” Julia said. “You know, where we’ll probably actually find people and information and all those other cool, important things we need! However, uh, the card isn’t exactly working…” She trailed off, twisting her ponytail. 

The terminal flashed red when Florinia tried their card on it.

“Okay, I vote I get to blow up the door,” Julia said, Poké Ball already in hand. 

“No.” Once again, Florinia got there before Astraea could even start mounting her own objection. “Why is combustion your solution to every obstacle?”

“Fun for the whole family?”

“Right. Did you two pass a computer at any point?”

“Yes! Downstairs,” Astraea replied immediately. _Yes! A non-explosion-based solution, please._

“I can attempt to edit permissions for this particular I.D. It will take a few minutes.”

“That sounds like a better plan. Want me to come?”

“No,” Fern said. “You stay here. Julia goes, because otherwise I’m sure she’ll attempt to blow something up anyways.”

“I would not!”

“Precedent shows you would,” Florinia said. “Here.” This time Astraea got to the outstretched card before Fern did. “Do not go anywhere.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Fern said, trying to grab the card away from Astraea.

She twisted out of his reach easily, smiling. 

“Glad you two are getting along,” Julia said. 

“Are we really though?” Astraea asked, warily eyeing Fern in case he made another try at it. 

“Unironically, this is much better than I expected. You haven’t killed each other.” 

“Get lost, Julie,” Fern said at the same time as Astraea’s “Absolutely no guarantees.” 

She looked like she wanted to make another comment, but sprung away toward the room’s exit when Florinia beckoned. 

Once they were gone, Fern sat down against the wall and coaxed Servine over to him. Astraea didn’t have it in herself to sit. Too much nervous energy bouncing around, sprung to life at the prospect that they would gain nothing from this. Or worse, that this… Meteor, that’s what Julia had said, was waiting until they were in the perfect position to corner. 

A room with two open sides to come in from and one locked door certainly seemed perfect for that. 

It was what Astraea would pick. 

She gripped the card tight and started to count the tiles on the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao i feel like i'm five seconds away from starting to link whatever song i happened to obsessively listen to while writing a chapter in the beginning notes


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...it is very much so currently saturday and not friday. oops,,  
> in my defense, i was tired.

The cloned card had originally belonged to a hotel. It was brightly branded with the name of a massive chain that had a location in Phenac nestled right by the train station. The rest of the card’s text was Kantonian, though, placing its true origins a continent away. It was something someone had left in a back pocket and walked out with, then, or it had been purposefully grifted as a souvenir and resigned to sitting on a shelf, taking up space, as its owner walked by thinking, _I’ll do something with that, someday._ And now it got to be used, albeit for a rather unconventional purpose.

It was probably Julia’s, actually. She struck Astraea as the kind of person who possessed a sizeable card collection in the name of a memory box. 

“I’m bored,” Fern said. “This was not supposed to be boring.”

Astraea dropped her hand to her side. “Better than the alternative.”

Fern shrugged and the dead, heavy silence resumed.

She eyed the doors in front of them. If they opened… It’d be fine. Right?

She heard faint laughter. Well, no, that couldn’t be. It was machinery running two rooms over and she’d made herself so stressed in the past five minutes that she was hearing things. Except, there it was again, and it really sounded like a person, filtered through chunks of metal. Which was to say, probably exactly like a machine, filtered through chunks of metal, too. 

There was an inconspicuous door on the back wall of the room, tucked near the corner. Astraea had assumed it was a storage closet. She walked to it and leaned in close. 

Every once in a while, paranoia paid off. 

“Hey,” she quietly said to Fern. “People in here.”

He immediately stood up. “Want to go see?”

“Thought we were staying here?”

“Fuck it.” He returned Servine to their Poké Ball. “Besides, I don’t remember the map that well, but I don’t think there’s an exit back there. So, if they come out—”

“They come here,” Astraea finished. “Okay.” Maybe it was better to go slightly on the offensive? At least they wouldn’t just be waiting for someone to stumble onto them. “Be quiet, though.” 

She pressed the hotel card against the terminal and gently opened the door, Melanie’s Poké Ball clutched in her free hand. There wasn’t a good view of the room’s full contents from the doorway. Boxes and machinery blocked off the sides, practically stacked to the ceiling and leaving only a narrow path for them to navigate through. It was a careful, careful walk to ensure they didn’t send something crashing to the ground. 

As they moved further into the room, the voices became clearer. 

“Don’t just stand there laughing, Eclipse! Help me with these.”

“I am helping,” the other voice said, amusement clearly still weaving its way through the sentence. “Take it slower, Aster. There’s no need to rush.”

Glancing around a stack, Astraea could suddenly see them. There was a woman with pulled-back black hair and a man dressed in all black, both of them wearing gloves. A Poké Ball was attached to Eclipse’s belt. They looked around Astraea’s age. A few years older, but, gods, she’d been right before: if she were wearing different clothes, she would blend in. It was not a pleasant thought. 

Aster shifted one of the boxes to enough of an angle that Astraea could see inside and any coherent, grandiose thought about how to handle the situation immediately fled her mind. _CHARGE EXPLOSIVE_ was printed on each of the packaged beige blocks filling it. 

She took a step backward and bumped directly into Fern. There was a hand on her arm, keeping her from moving farther back against him. It didn’t leave. She had no way to check if he’d seen, didn’t dare speak, even at a whisper. She was close enough to feel him breathing. 

Aster was complaining. “—if the truck hadn’t been so late.”

Eclipse was hidden behind boxes again, but Astraea heard her sigh. “I don’t know why you ever expected differently. This is how it always goes.”

“Can you grab the packing tape? The bottom of this isn’t sealed.” Footsteps echoed on the tile. “No, not there, I left it at the front.”

Astraea felt Fern tug on her shirt sleeve. She acquiesced, quickly. Why did she even let them come in without any semblance of a plan? The last thing they needed was for—

Eclipse was already right in front of them. The smile on her face immediately dropped into something colder. “He said you people wouldn’t get back here.” She drew her Poké Ball. “I can’t believe I have to deal with this, too.”

Astraea had enough presence of mind left to release Melanie. Eclipse’s rockruff paid no attention to how tiny they were in comparison and tackled Melanie head-on, knocking her back against a tower of cardboard boxes that went tumbling in the other direction.

In the span of time it took Fern to get Servine out again, Melanie had made it back on her paws and leveraged her bulk to push Rockruff into the more open space Aster and Eclipse were occupying. Astraea quickly followed. Maybe she had no plan, but she was sure as hell determined to make herself a problem. 

Aster stood from his crouch over a box, startled, and an identical rockruff sprung from his Poké Ball. Servine swerved to intercept them before they could tag-team Melanie with their counterpart. 

No way was Astraea going to keep track of which rockruff belonged to who, that was for sure. 

Melanie couldn’t navigate well in the cramped space and, while a single ice-laden bite from her should have put a sizeable dent in the rockruffs’ fighting ability, they constantly eluded her, balancing on boxes and zipping back and forth between safe spaces. There was no safe time for Astraea to switch to Bast and even if there was, she would be far too close to Servine, who had thrown themselves into the middle of the fray with ease.

Servine’s vines snaked out and tripped one of the rockruffs, leaving them wide-open for Melanie. The other rockruff refused to let her near and she couldn’t outmaneuver them until long after the moment was gone.

The fight quickly pushed Astraea and Fern to the side of the room opposite from the entrance as they tried to stay out of the tangled ball of rockruff-servine-rockruff-mightyena that whirled around the tile, always led by one of the rockruffs. Eclipse had reached the narrow path heading back to the main room and backed into it, clearly unwilling to let the position go.

They were _so_ screwed. The rockruffs managed to corner Servine and it was only by the grace of Melanie knocking over a set of boxes on top of the pair that Servine escaped. 

Astraea saw Aster and Eclipse exchanging loaded glances and tried to ready herself for whatever was about to come. _There’s a way out of this, there always is._ She couldn’t have more than one pokémon out in the area without making the close-quarters issue worse. So, maybe she just had to make the call; have Melanie aim for Aster or Eclipse. She didn’t want to, but if she had to choose between them and her, well, it wasn’t really a contest.

The stones encircling both the rockruff’s necks lit up white. Eyes quickly shutting on instinct, Astraea ducked behind the closest piece of machinery. Rocks slammed into it seconds later. By the time she reemerged, Aster and Eclipse were already back to the main room. 

She took off after them. 

They’d paused at the doors, but they opened up for them before Astraea could get there. They were inside in seconds, their rockruffs right at their heels. 

Right before Astraea got there, something grabbed her arm and held her back. The last thing she saw before the doors harshly swung shut in her face was Eclipse cheerfully waving at her from down the hallway. 

“Have you completely lost it?”

She wrenched her arm away from Fern. “Maybe,” she said, turning around. “You get hit?”

He shook his head.

In the corner of the room, mounted to the ceiling, was a security camera. That would be why the doors had opened for Aster and Eclipse apropos of nothing, then. Which meant whoever was in the rooms ahead already knew they were there. All of them, including Julia and Florinia. Had they missed other cameras too? It hadn’t even occurred to Astraea to check for them. “Think Julia and Florinia are okay?”

“Yeah,” Fern said. “They said it might take a bit.”

Astraea let her gaze fall away from the camera. Melanie was standing in the other doorway. Astraea walked over and bent down to pet her, then quickly ran her hands through her fur to check for broken skin. Melanie licked her cheek in response. 

“I’d like to point out that I was right and you were _awful_ at that,” Fern said from behind her.

“I know,” she replied, standing.

It felt irresponsible to leave a bunch of explosives sitting on the ground idly. Astraea reentered the annex, moving farther into the back to try and find anything else worthwhile, purposefully avoiding the abandoned, open box. When she turned back around, Fern was standing over it. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Trying to figure out exactly what this is.”

“Uh, maybe don’t? I have no desire to—Just, don’t.”

“Fine.” He moved his attention elsewhere. 

Astraea felt her skin crawling. She couldn’t look away from the box’s contents and desperately wanted to never see them again all at once. 

She _shouldn’t_ have come.

This was always a possibility—the fights, the explosives; all of it—and she could handle exactly none of it. What in the hell was wrong with her? Both for not being able to deal with it and for ever thinking she could. 

There was the sound of footsteps in the main room and she and Fern both rushed toward the noise. It was a sheer miracle they didn’t knock anything else over on their way out. 

“Don’t do that!” Julia spun toward them. “You’re freaking me out.”

Astraea started. “Julia—”

“—We found explosives,” Fern finished. 

“Ohmygodwhere?” Julia squeaked. In excitement. Because she apparently couldn’t distinguish between “teenagers with firecrackers” and “terrorists.” She caught sight of the open door and practically skipped to it, Fern following close behind.

“Did you fix the card?” Astraea asked Florinia, since she was still standing by the other door. Maybe they could just have a conversation there, far, far away from anything that could ever potentially explode. That sounded nice.

“Yes. You two found what exactly?”

Astraea sighed and tried to brush it off with an easy shrug. “Here, c’mon.” She gestured for Florinia to follow her back into the storage room. 

Inside, Julia was crouched over the boxes. “This is so cool! I mean, not _cool_ cool. But I want to use it!” 

“How did you two find this?” Florinia asked. 

From beside Julia, Fern said, “Oh, we super almost died.” 

“That’s an exaggeration. There were people in here, though. They’re in the other room now. Which may actually have made our job harder?” Astraea paused and crossed her arms. “You know, now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not actually sure we did a good thing here.” 

“Mmm, no, we definitely want these,” Julia said. “Well, not us. The police’ll want them. Watch, I bet they won’t let me keep _any_ of it!”

“Primarily because that would be illegal,” Florinia said. “If you wanted to interact with bombs, you should have selected a different career path.” 

“But I thought I’d get away with so much more than I do,” Julia said, rising. “That I don’t is the real travesty here.”

“That’s great and all, but what’s the plan?” Fern asked. 

Immediately, Florinia said, “The explosives should not be left alone and Julia should not be the one to remain with them.” 

Julia groaned. “I wouldn’t even do anything, Rini! You’re very right though. You two should stay,” she said, turning to Fern and Astraea.

Fern stood back up. “Are you kidding?”

“No! There are definitely still other people in the building. Based on Grandview, making sure they don’t have these is what, like, actually matters here.” 

“You sure about that?” Fern asked. “Because, isn’t the point of going back there to deal with whoever’s in charge, effectively preventing these from mattering?”

Florinia spoke up before Julia had the chance. “The point is largely information. It is not assured there is anyone of importance to this organization within the facility.” 

“Exactly!” Julia threw her hands up for emphasis. “Yes, there’s a risk to splitting up like this again. There’s a risk to all of this! But,” she said, drawing out the word, “even if we cut the head off the seviper, whose to say it’s not actually a hydreigon? And if it is, and if we lost these, and they got used for what they’re trying to use them for, that’s not even just me, or the people I work with. That’s, like, the _whole city_. That’s not a risk I really want to take. The risks there, though—”she pointed back toward the main room—“I will.”

“I’m with them,” Astraea broke in. “But I can also stay here by myself, if we’d rather do that.” She kept pitifully vacillating between priorities, but screw information. She lived on the waterfront now, blocks and blocks away from the power plant, but she still didn’t want to hear that noise, see that smoke; know in excruciating detail what had happened.

If she dwelled on the thought too long, she swore she could feel glass breaking around her. 

Florinia was talking. “—to your person. Risk is at its lowest when we remain in pairs.”

Fern sighed. “I’m not gonna win this, huh? Fine, you two just go. See if I care when you get outdone.”

Astraea followed them out to the main hallway to watch as they entered. When Florinia pressed the card against the terminal, it lit up green and the doors unlocked. 

She should find it impressive, she knew she should, but the world was buzzing and just a bit blurry and all she could feel was worry. Not even for them, or her. Just for _everything_. 

The doors shut. 

She walked back to Fern. 

“This is stupid,” he said, kicking an abandoned screw across the tile.

“No, it’s not.”

“We know there’s three people in there, minimum. We could just leave a couple pokémon here. The first thing Julia said when she saw that damn thing was that it’s all stable. They won’t just get hit and go off; even these guys aren’t that dumb.”

“Too high-risk. It’s extraordinarily easy for a lone pokémon to be taken out, at least compared to a pokémon with a trainer.” Her mind cleared a bit. “Particularly in such tight quarters. It’s easy to sneak up on something here, just like we accidentally did with Aster and Eclipse. So, if we went that route, the pokémon we left would need to have some kind of increased awareness of their surroundings. I don’t think any of us actually has that. Well, there’s my espurr, but she’s not the most combat-ready.”

“You sound like my sister.”

“Do I? I’ll take that as a compliment, I guess.” 

“You would,” Fern scoffed.

She held back a laugh. “This again?”

“Only always.”

“I like her! She’s pleasant,” Astraea said, sitting back on a desk that was discarded among the clutter.

“What did Julia say earlier? Oh, right. ‘You don’t need to be nice, but it’s so sweet that you are.’ Except I don’t think it’s sweet, I think it’s just incredibly pathetic.” 

“And you’re a complete jerk. What’s new?” She pulled one leg up to rest her chin on, smiling. “I think we should have put more, like… guidelines on this,” she ventured, the worry rushing back to her. “When do we go check on them?”

“Trust me, we’ll know if there’s a problem. We will hear the very loud noise of Julia’s electrode exploding. Also, given that we’re apparently working on the level of rockruffs, if they’re not fine, they don’t deserve their jobs.”

“The guy in the hallway had a granbull. Plus, you seem convinced there’s someone very high up in their organization back there, so...”

Evidently, Fern didn’t have a clever retort for that.

The clock kept ticking. Astraea stood to stretch. Apparently, she wasn’t doing too hot with sitting in silence anymore. In all fairness, though, she was only three weeks out from almost dying. That tended to put a damper on a lot of life’s minute aspects. 

She’d even out soon, get back to being comfortable sitting and waiting when tensions ran high. 

She just needed more time, that was all. And time was the one thing Dialga was consistently good at providing.

“Would you stop pacing?”

“Oh.” Astraea stopped in her tracks. “I’m sorry.”

There was a slightly muffled _boom_ from the other room. Fern was out the room like a shot, Astraea almost even with him. 

She came to a halt at the locked doors, eyes skipping around them, looking for any—

Fern grabbed the cloned card out of her hand and used it, shoving past her. 

Astraea followed, right up until she saw Florinia gently stop him and direct him back down the hall. Julia rounded the corner behind them, the flash of red light drifting back toward an unseen room meaning she'd recalled whatever pokémon had self-exploded.

Julia pulled the doors shut behind them. “Well, that went well.”

“Are you okay?” Astraea asked, which seemed prudent. 

“Oh, yeah, totally!” Julia leaned back against the wall. “We were right. There was a guy who seemed pretty in charge! And we were doing a great job of disarming him, even with the two you chased in still being there, but, uh…”

“Alakazams are particularly skilled teleporters,” Florinia supplied. “And—” 

“You lost them?” Fern cut in. “Because of an alakazam of all things?”

“If it’d been in the room we would’ve known to watch, but it got in and out so quick! It was clearly planned.” Julia crossed her arms. “I tried to catch them, as you most certainly heard. It did not work.”

Florinia and Fern tried to speak at the same time, though Florinia stopped once it was clear Fern wouldn’t. “—standing out here and not in there?” 

Julia could evidently tell their voices apart well enough to determine what the first half of his sentence had been. “Oh, because their plan to get us out after they were gone was to release an unidentifiable mystery gas that may do nothing or may kill us! But the door’s closed, so we’re good.”

“No,” Astraea said, “we’re not. There is no way this is airtight.”

“It’s tinted. We’ll see it if it gets through the door.”

“I don’t think that’s how that works, Julia.”

“It isn’t. It will diffuse long before it reaches here. We need to leave,” Florinia said, with a finality that suggested it was what she’d been trying to say all along. 

“You two were the ones making a big deal about a couple of boxes of explosives,” Fern said. “Should we not do something so they don’t just go get them?”

“We don’t know how much is in there,” Astraea replied. “Any of those boxes could have some.”

“Granting that said gas actually has an effect, that door is not airtight either, and it isn’t probable such a risk would be undertaken by them, particularly given that the contents of that room were intended to leave prior to this.” Florinia was already halfway to the right door. 

“What?”

“Let’s go.” Astraea recalled Melanie. “Her point was let’s go, and now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~rae standing two feet away from a box of explosives like "this is fine :)"~~
> 
> deciding to write this thing purely from rae's pov means i'm not going to get to write about aster and eclipse as much as i want to aaa,, especially eclipse. oh well.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's 10 pm on friday, but at least it's on friday this week lol

The trucks that had been parked in the loading dock were gone by the time their group made it into the fresh air. By some small miracle, the downpour had stopped while they were upstairs and the sky was clear again. 

Julia was immediately on her phone with, if Astraea was gathering context clues correctly, someone in the police department. Florinia’s eyes stayed on Julia. Fern seemed bored, mostly, now that they weren’t in any great danger, and was extremely uninterested in Astraea’s attempts to interact with him. 

Julia shut her phone off. “Okay, twenty minutes and we’ll have people here to clear the building and remove the explosives. Which, I could do that, but, whatever, at least this way we’ll be sure we won’t die from mystery gas. But also, I’m stuck standing here for at least twenty minutes.”

“I’ll stay with you,” Astraea volunteered. 

“Yeah, well, I’m out,” Fern said. “Can’t just wait around all day like Rae here apparently can.”

“Really—” She didn’t bother finishing the sentence. He was already walking away. 

“Way to sour the mood,” Julia said once he was across the lot.

Was it not already pretty soured?

“That is one of his few veritable competencies.”

Was Astraea the only one who, somewhere along the line, had started half-way enjoying his half-baked quips?

“I will remain until we are able to reenter the building and determine what data, if any, remains on their servers,” Florinia said. “Following that, however, I need to attend to Obsidia.”

“Of course.” Julia smiled. “And, hey, thanks for coming down when I asked! I know you’re busy, especially now.”

“The alternative was letting you break into this factory alone, or with only Astraea as a companion.”

“Yeah, I’m getting the feeling that wouldn’t have ended too well,” Astraea said, letting herself have a small laugh at her own expense. 

“You survived this, no?”

“Fair enough.” She sat back down on the nearby railing, figuring that it would at least be less soaking wet than the curb itself. 

Julia sat down on the curb anyways, putting her head in her hands. “Ugh, I think I’m crashing. And starting to regret the last three cups of coffee.” Her phone started buzzing and swiftly found its way back into her hands. “Oh, Ame, hi!” She stood back up and headed out of earshot. 

After a minute of silence between them, Florinia walked away. Astraea watched as she came to a halt on the edge of the loading dock’s drive. She seemed to be staring at something and, curiosity piqued, Astraea went to join her. 

“What are you looking at?”

Florinia raised an arm. Astraea looked up and was met with a security camera, tucked away in an obscure corner. 

“Damn, out here too? Guess we could’ve just let Julia put a hole in the front.”

“That would be one way of looking at it.” 

“How’d you guess?”

“Not a guess. Their leader insinuated as much and, that aside, we were met with far too little opposition, both from people and from their security systems.”

“Information for next time, I suppose, given that they probably won’t just go away, nice as that’d be.” Astraea sighed and looked across the lot to Julia before voicing the concern that had started turning in her head the second she and Fern were left alone for the second time. “Do you think it really matters that we have those explosives?”

“Difficult to ascertain, given the information available,” Florinia replied, instead of dismissing her out of hand. “If they were crucial pieces of Meteor’s operation, it would logically follow that they would have fought harder for them. If they are not… it’s ambiguous if that is because they have access to more, or because they do not perceive their use as necessary for completion of their mission.”

“That’s what I was starting to think too. Not very hopeful, is it?”

“It is what it is.”

“Which do you think is more likely?”

“If we are correct and the recent destruction in Jasper, Beryl, and now Obsidia is perpetrated by the same group, or a different sect of them, then it has already been made clear that they do not need access to explosives for wide-scale destruction, even if their alternative method is still unknown.”

Astraea glanced between the camera and the door. “If they knew we were here from the start, why didn’t they stop us at the entrance? I’m guessing they could have if they’d really wanted to.” She rocked back on her heels, squashing the urge to pace in a circle. “If I have everything straight, they shouldn’t have known we were coming. But they seemed like they were already planning on leaving. Fern and I got the chance to look through some filing cabinets, they were completely empty.”

Florinia took a step forward, looking lost in thought. “The man we gleaned our information from has been in custody for almost two weeks. They would have known he had been apprehended and likely planned to vacate the premises as a result, on the chance he did disclose information.”

“Yeah, but… To time it this well?”

There was quiet as Astraea tried to untangle all the knotted threads in her head. From the look of things, Florinia was doing the same. 

Finally, Florinia bluntly stated, “They wanted to see who would come.”

“What?” 

“Paper files were already removed and the interior electronic security was altered for ease of access. Given the transportation challenges, explosives would have to be the last thing to exit the building. Best to wait until as many law enforcement entities throughout the city as possible were otherwise occupied. However, that includes any time after the development of Obsidia’s present situation. If speed and their safety were truly the only factors in consideration, they would have left Monday night. Therefore, they were waiting to ascertain who would show up in the absence of normal first responders.”

“That makes sense. But, wouldn’t it still be the police? Just, they’d take longer to get here, which isn’t measurable when they don’t know when that guy gave them up. I mean, obviously that wasn’t how it happened, but isn’t that the assumption anyone would make?”

“Julia mentioned you haven’t been in the city long, so it may not be overtly obvious to you, but our police force is currently spread excruciatingly thin. Most officers from currently stable wards are attending to the situations in Beryl, Jasper, and Obsidia and, even then, it is not enough. We are here, or at least here without assisting officers, because there are no officers to assist.”

Astraea nodded. “You are right that I don’t have a good baseline. I don’t see what they’d gain out of that, though.”

“Confirmation that gym leaders will rise to the role of city protection when required, past standard dealings with rogue pokémon and minor-scale incidents. Julia and I have a wealth of publicly available information due to our status. If they did not know who we were upon entering, it will not be difficult for them to find out.”

Astraea crossed her arms, struggling to word her next thought.

Because she was there, too.

On camera.

“You should not worry about it,” Florinia said, unprompted. “Information on official league-sanctioned battles aside, trainer records are sealed from the general public.” 

“Yeah, I know, but that doesn’t mean there’s not other stuff to find. It’s still concerning.”

“Perhaps.”

Julia was off her phone. That apparently signaled the end of the conversation for Florinia, who walked back toward her, leaving Astraea all alone with a security camera and only slightly calmed worries. 

• • •

It took nearly an hour for two officers to show up with Galarian weezings and golbats to clear out Mosswater. After at least another thirty minutes, it was determined that the amount of gas released had been minimal and it was definitely safe to enter. Privately, Astraea spent most of their time waiting wondering if Fern had left because he knew how long they’d be stuck in the post-storm summer humidity and heat. 

The officers took on responsibility for the explosives and Astraea, Julia, and Florinia returned to the back rooms Julia and Florinia had been so abruptly discharged from. Florinia took a seat at the multi-monitored computer setup and Julia and Astraea set about examining the myriad of cabinets in the expansive space, trying to find anything paper that was worth anything at all. 

To fill the void, Julia kept talking. Astraea joined in, given that she wasn’t finding anything more interesting to devote her attention to. And Florinia… Florinia did an excellent job of being hard for Astraea to decipher. 

At first, Astraea deemed her shy. And that was probably true, but it definitely didn’t feel like the whole picture. Yes, she moved like she was trying to take up as little space as possible. Yes, she was conveniently mum all throughout Julia and Astraea’s conversation about their day-to-day lives. But she was, without fail, an active participant every time they discussed pokémon or computers or Meteor. And she didn’t just pull herself away from Julia and Astraea’s personal asides, she glossed over them, like they meant nothing. Like they were wholly irrelevant to existence itself. And that didn’t really seem to fit _shy_. 

It wasn’t like she was trying to reduce the number of words she spoke, either. The opposite, really. Her sentences were overly long, not quite flowery, just forgoing expediency for unnecessary precision. She barely stumbled over words, too. Definitely less than Julia, whose mid-sentence changes in train of thought didn’t always lend themselves to easy understanding.

When Astraea tried, she could pick up traces of a west Orresian accent from Florinia, something she hadn’t been able to pin down in Fern at all. That bit was nice. Honestly, even putting everything else about her aside, Astraea was tempted to be friends with her just on the chance she could have an in-depth conversation in her first language with someone who could respond in kind. 

Astraea was midway through at least the third unhelpful shelf when Florinia pushed her chair back from the computer console. “There is nothing for us to recover here,” she said, her tone leaving no room for arguments. “The only thing left easily accessible is the security camera feeds. They were still active, though I disabled them out of an abundance of caution, as their continued usage has a chance to overwrite other data. Someone more well-versed in recovering files will need to examine the drive; there’s a chance I’m missing something. But I strongly suspect at least one person in the many that were present here understands how to properly ensure data erasure.” 

Julia sighed. “At least they’re out of here, sans explosives. That’s an improvement.”

“Is the security footage from when you guys were in here accessible?” Astraea asked. 

“Yes.”

“Can I see?” 

At Florinia’s nod, Astraea abandoned her fruitless search and walked to the console, leaning over the back of Florinia’s chair. Florinia found the correct camera and the correct time in the footage and let it play. 

There was no audio. 

Aster hovered by the wall, the two rockruffs circling him, antsy. Eclipse stood eerily close to where Astraea was, arms crossed, mouth moving. A man sat in the chair, his back to the camera. All Astraea could make out was black hair, black clothes, white skin. 

The rockruffs crouched down in sync, facing the door, and moments later Julia and Florinia were just barely in view of the camera. Eclipse turned, still speaking. 

The man in the chair stood. His left profile was suddenly on full display, including the eye patch covering his eye. It was a muted brown, maybe red—the camera was a bit color-challenged—and the thick straps securing it to his head combined with his hard-set scowl to create an imposing figure. The heavy coat and gloves didn’t hurt either.

His mouth was moving. Astraea couldn’t read lips, especially not on a grainy screen. She leaned forward further, trying to catch even a piece. 

“He’s saying they knew someone would come, though in more words,” Florinia said. “And insinuating that they had already planned to leave the premises.” 

Astraea pulled back, suddenly aware that she was probably intruding on Florinia’s personal space more than she would like to be intruded on. “Right. Thanks.” 

On screen, Aster and Eclipse’s rockruffs’ necks were haloed in pixelated white, the tell-tale sign of incoming rocks. Florinia had a cradily out within seconds and they effortlessly rendered the pair useless. Eclipse looked shocked as her rockruff collapsed, their energy visibly sucked into Cradily’s tentacles. Cradily tilted their head and, for just a moment, Astraea caught sight of yellow eyes hidden in the dark recesses of their carapace, directly underneath the swirling eyespots on top. 

Astraea would fight Florinia, eventually, provided having been on camera at Mosswater didn’t kill her first. She’d have to watch for that cradily. If they could put down both rockruffs at once so simply, she wasn’t keen on discovering how potent the acid they secreted was. 

Julia said something and the man released a seviper onto the floor. They coiled up, hissing, their fangs and tails an ominous purple. Astraea glanced to the floor where they had sat, just to make sure there weren’t drops of poison left behind. 

Astraea watched as the next few minutes played out. Julia was right, she and Florinia had held their own. Hell, they were actively winning. But Astraea couldn’t shake the uncomfortable sense that the man wasn’t actually trying. He wasn’t focused hard enough. His seviper darted toward Julia or Florinia once or twice and was always intercepted by their pokémon, but the actions weren’t real attempts at harm. They were fake outs, at best. 

Like Seviper was toying with a baby buneary. 

After Julia’s pokémon almost missed countering Seviper once and Seviper seemed to pause mid-rush, Astraea was completely sure Seviper could have gotten past Julia and Florinia’s defenses, bitten them both, and been done with it. 

Around that moment, an alakazam materialized on the man’s left. Aster and Eclipse, probably not in the original plan, scrambled to get within teleporting range as the man recalled Seviper. 

Julia managed to get her electrode out and the white flash of the explosion mingled with that of Alakazam’s teleportation. Electrode’s blast hit only air. Animatedly upset, Julia said something to Florinia, and Astraea caught the first tendrils of a hazy blue gas on screen.

Florinia paused the footage. 

“He didn’t give a name. Obviously,” Julia said, having walked up to watch at some point. 

“One would think possession of an eyepatch narrows down the pool of potential suspects, but this city is plagued by destroyed and lost records, which makes identification difficult,” Florinia said, standing. “And that is presuming whatever accident or medical procedure that created such need occurred within the boundaries of Reborn at all. Nonetheless, someone will check to see if he has a prior arrest record on file.” She crouched down by the edge of the console. “There is not a high probability a successful identification will be made.”

“At least he’s easy to spot on the street,” Astraea said. “Better than him looking like Insurance Salesman Dale, the neighbor you desperately wish would stop talking to you.” She tamped down the smile that came when Julia laughed.

“It appears the gas was released via a pipe located here. The officers should have collected a sample to determine if it’s truly a danger.” Florinia stood. “There is not much more to be done here. I need to check in in with the officers in Obsidia.”

“Okay, sounds good! I think I should stop by the plant, but I’ll walk you back to Grandview and Fourth, at least. Rae, wanna come back with us?”

“Sure.” Her apartment was in the opposite direction, but, sure. It was still a few hours before she was needed there. 

Florinia retreated to the room across the hall where the officers were set up. 

Julia stretched. “Sorry this didn’t end up being particularly helpful.” 

“No, it was,” Astraea replied. She knew what the man with the eyepatch looked like, understood the scale of things a bit more. That was putting aside the whole _on camera_ thing, of course, but there was nothing Julia could do about that. “And I really appreciate you trying to help me at all.”

“Hey, no problem! That’s what friends are for, right?”

Astraea gave her an easy, broad smile and tucked away two weeks of conflicting feelings on the subject. 

• • •

Outside, some of the earlier humidity had finally dispersed. It was actually pleasant to be in the heat again. Plus, the south part of Peridot was on level ground, so there were no rushing streams of water to transverse as the rain raced toward a place to pool, only avoidable puddles on dips in the roads. Julia quickly made a habit of leaping over them. The lake water seemed slightly less contaminated, too, though that easily could have been Astraea’s imagination. 

The conversation was Julia and Astraea heavy, but at a lull Julia directly asked Florinia, “Hey, Onyx is still okay, right?”

“Yes. The damage was barely out to the Sliph Co. buildings when I left this morning.” It was maybe the first real sentence Florinia had spoken since they’d left the factory.

“But if you get back and it’s not, you know you can stay with me, right?”

“I would not subject you to Fern for that long,” Florinia said, and Astraea bit her tongue to keep from saying a smart retort or just laughing. “Besides, there will be significantly greater concerns than just my personal place of residence if damage spreads to the school districts.”

“Yeah, but I’m concerned about you!” Julia, a few steps ahead, jumped over a pothole lake. “And Fern, I guess. The point is, less so everyone else.”

Astraea caught a smile on Florinia’s face, but it vanished quickly and her well-maintained neutrality returned. “Alright. I’ll keep it in mind.”

“You better.” Julia fell back in step with them and swiveled her attention to Astraea. “And you, are you ever going to challenge me to a match? I’m getting bored.” 

“Because the events of the past few weeks have been so boring,” Astraea said, rolling her eyes. “I could, I guess. But I’m not a hundred percent sure I’ll win, so…”

“Who cares? I just wanna fight someone!”

Incredulous, Astraea managed, “I care, Julia!”

“A challenger’s win is the ultimate point of a match, and official win-loss ratios hold significant weight,” Florinia said. “She doesn’t have tournaments to pad those with right now.”

“See, Florinia’s on my side.”

“Rini, that’s not fair!”

“Fine. Astraea, an inquiry: Have you observed Julia’s official arena in operation?”

Around Julia’s protests, Astraea said, “No, I haven’t been inside.”

“Then it may behoove you to know that the panels coating the arena, when online, are significant electrical conductors. It provides an effect not unlike that of a standard luxray’s deluge ability, with the added hazard of visible electricity jumps across the tiles. I am sure you can draw your own conclusions regarding its usefulness.”

“Ugh, you are sabotaging me!” Julia pouted.

Astraea couldn’t help laughing. 

“Negative. It is merely a leveling of the field so you may receive your challenge earlier, as you have stated you want.”

“If you are going to sass me about this, at least do it with some feeling!” The smile on Julia’s face came through in her voice too.

“I believe this is where we part.”

Astraea glanced up at the street sign by the crossroads. Grandview and Fourth, the “a” in Grandview fading and the “i” missing its dot. 

“Okay, if you have to go.” Julia kicked at the ground with a tennis shoe. “Be careful on the way back, it’s almost dark. And let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.” 

“In the unlikely event demolitions are required, I will enlist your presence.”

“Oh, you kn—You are being purposefully obtuse here, and I know it!”

“Goodbye, Julia.”

“It was nice to meet you,” Astraea hurried to add. 

“You as well.”

“Bye, Rini,” Julia called as Florinia crossed the street. “I love you!”

Julia received a raised hand of acknowledgment in reply. She stood and watched until Florinia had made it another block down, then started up Fourth, Astraea following. She was quiet as they walked. 

Astraea rifled through phrases to break the silence. She settled on, “You were right. I like her.” 

“Good. She likes you too, if it wasn’t clear.”

“Oh, it was pretty clear at the end there.” 

“I can’t believe—That was the ultimate betrayal!” she replied, giggling. “I’m gonna do the same to her once you beat me.”

“Yes, please, everyone help me more!”

Julia descended into full-on laughter. Once she’d stopped, though, the odd quiet returned. 

“You good?” Astraea, not particularly in the mood to dance around subjects for all eternity. 

“Yeah,” Julia said, sighing. “Just exhausted. It’s been a long day.”

“And you’re worried about Florinia.” 

“No more than usual, really,” Julia said. “She’s right, none of the damage is anywhere near her townhouse.” 

“Small blessings, right?”

Julia smiled. “Something like that.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “She’ll be fine, she always is.” 

“I believe it. Oh, I wanted to ask earlier, but with everything else… Obsidia. What exactly is going on? Were you there this morning?”

“No, I was at the Grand Hall. I haven’t been to the east side since this started. But Rini says it’s not bad, not like Jasper. It’s just not great, either.”

“That’s good,” Astraea said cautiously. “I mean, there’s probably time to figure things out there, then, yeah? Instead of just having to focus on getting people out.”

“That’s what Rini’s thinking, too. Plant growth is her venue, not mine, though, so I don’t know much more than that.” They’d reached the powerplant doors. “You are going to challenge me soon, right?”

“You know what? Yeah.” Astraea stepped into the A.C. The receptionist’s desk was empty. “Give me a day or two to get things together and I will.” 

“Yes!” Julia bounced in place on the tile. “I am not letting you see the arena until then though, Rini’s done enough.”

“Knowing what’s coming and actually being able to deal with it are two different beasts.”

Julia grinned. “Excellent attitude! Now keep that energy when I spend the first half of the match absolutely crushing you.”

“No way in hell that happens and you know it,” Astraea replied, grinning too. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> miss florinia i love u <3  
> also i caught typos twice in this where i mixed up aster and astraea's names lmao  
> mmm also also, julia gym next chapter and then i may end up taking a break for a week or two. that was not my starting plan w this, but my backlog isn't quite where i want it to be lol,, idk i'll work on it through next week and revaluate next friday <3


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's saturday.  
> i think i just post on saturdays now?  
> yeah, i definitely just post on saturdays now.

In Astraea’s opinion, her match against Julia started _abysmally_.

They were a few minutes into the fight and she and Julia were both still on their first pokémon: Bast for Astraea, a plusle for Julia.

The first exchange of attacks had gone smoothly, but then Plusle had re-summoned the electric pompoms they’d used to preform a cheer at the start of the match with only a clap and aggressively batted them both down onto the electric panels coating the arena’s floor. The crackling spheres had bounced off the first tile and onto the next, jumping across the arena as Bast took her first steps onto the left stretch of tiles. 

When Bast had jumped to avoid them, some of the electricity had arced up and gripped one of her paws, pulling her down in a crash of fire, momentum gone. The remaining ball had continued across the arena, fumbling to a stop on the rubber wall designed to contain the sparks. 

Plusle had rushed toward Bast, who managed to catch one of Plusle’s long ears in her teeth. Plusle had been too close, though, and sent Bast stumbling back with an electric touch of their paws, or their cheeks, or their ear itself. All of them were electricity conductors and there was no way to tell what had triggered the blow. 

So that was how it started, Julia looking all-too-pleased with herself across the bounds of the arena and Bast rising from the ground. And if that was how things continued, Astraea was sure it was going to be an uneasy, hard fight all the way to the finish line.

Plusle bore down on Bast with surprising intensity, but she pulled herself out of the way. Best to keep her distance, that much was clear. Abandoning the flame charge technique she’d originally been using, Bast worked to keep Plusle on the other side of the arena via short, persistent bursts of fire. As she adapted to the way Plusle’s electricity moved across the tiles, she managed to stop acting defensively and started aiming her attacks closer and closer to her target. 

Once, Bast caught Plusle in the side and they were forced to stop attacking and protect themselves. They used electricity to create crackling vertical barriers and, while the sparkling, static-y lines were low enough that Bast should have been able to arc her flames over them and hit Plusle, she could never get the angle sharp enough. 

Eventually, Astraea saw how the screens faltered at the edges. 

Bast aimed her next barrage of flames toward Plusle’s side. They pulled their barrier up off-center and Bast psychically redirected the flames to the right, red and orange passing through the barrier’s faltering edge and catching Plusle roughly in the chest. They were knocked off-balance and Bast continued her attack. Plusle’s screens were too close to their body, too weak, and the heat kept crashing through them. 

Plusle was eliminated from the match entirely. 

After a moment’s contemplation, Astraea returned Bast to her Poké Ball and sent out Juliet in her stead.

• • •

It had come as no surprise to Astraea where exactly Julia’s arena was located within the power plant. After all, it was the last place Astraea hadn’t seen and Julia hadn’t brushed off as _generator this_ or _storage that_ , so the options were painfully limited.

When Astraea and Julia had first entered, the overhead lights had kicked on in a front-to-back cascade. 

Bleachers lined the left and right walls. They had to be only a formality. There was no chance Julia’s gym frequently hosted exhibition matches when Reborn wasn’t in chaos, Astraea was sure of that. The full-scale arenas in the richer parts of the city had to be the no-contest winners of that distinction.

Astraea’s attention, though, had been largely limited to the main event: tiles, painted pale green and yellow in a checkerboard pattern. They covered the entire battlefield, save for a thin strip of regular flooring running from one trainer box to the other. Astraea had extrapolated from Florinia’s words that there would only be a small smattering of easy-to-avoid tiles, but she’d obviously extrapolated wrong. Maybe it had just been wishful thinking from the start.

“I’ve been redecorating,” Julia had said, breaking through Astraea’s silence, heels clicking on the tiles as she stepped into the battlefield’s bounds, “but I still think I need more banners. Or more streamers. Oooh, or sparklers!” She’d twirled in the middle of the field, attention everywhere but the field itself, forcing Astraea to notice the pink decorations scattered throughout the room and lighting up the rafters. 

“I’m a big fan of the intent, but that feels dangerous,” Astraea had replied, mostly still considering how, exactly, to approach the panels. 

“Yeah, it’d be a safety hazard, huh? Who cares about that, though?” She’d tightened her ponytail, pulling her attention from the walls. “Ready?” 

• • •

Plusle’s entrance onto the arena had been marked by an explosion of red and gold confetti and Julia’s second pokémon, a minun, made the artful display into a pattern of hers. They landed on the ground in a swirl of white holographic hearts, breaking out in a cheer just like Plusle had. 

Astraea liked seeing it. Trainers in Orre rarely used seals. Mostly, it was just coordinators and kids dreaming to be one that found the time for them. But of course Julia, with her cheerleading background and her pink banners and her impeccable fashion sense, took the time to outfit each of her pokémon’s Poké Balls with capsules and mix-and-match seals so they all got their own grand entrance. 

The second match-up of the day started with less of a bang than the first.

Juliet lunged to the left and, eyes glowing, started a wave of psychic energy toward Minun from the right. Minun dropped down on all fours and pounced on top of Juliet, the wave passing over them and colliding against the bleachers, sending the sound of vibrating metal echoing across the arena. Astraea saw Julia cringe at the noise and fought back the urge to do so herself.

Juliet and Minun rolled on the ground in a tangle, little sparks starting on the tiles where Minun made contact with them. After a few tense seconds, Juliet managed to hit Minun with a sound wave hard enough that it knocked them off her. She stumbled back to her paws, electricity crackling in her fur, and, if not for the shinx in her bloodline, Astraea knew the long contact with Minun would have left her paralyzed and struggling to move for the rest of her time on the field. As it was, Juliet shook it off and crouched down again, preparing for another attack. 

Minun clapped, summoning two balls of electricity into their paws, the similarities between Plusle and them returning in full force. 

Juliet started across the arena and managed to dismantle one of the balls with a burst of psychic energy that sent the electricity dissipating back across the tiles. The second ball, she leapt over. When Juliet was only a few feet from Minun, though, they sent a thin column of electricity up from the floor that caught Juliet right across her stomach. 

Once it was clear Juliet couldn’t stay in the fight, Astraea returned her to her Poké Ball. 

Down to three pokémon already. Well, two, really. Delilah wasn’t going to fair well against any of Julia’s pokémon: she was largely untrained, already frail, and particularly prone to being crippled by electrical currents. 

Maybe Astraea throwing herself into this fight _had_ been a bad idea.

Julia’s pokémon weren’t inherently strong. There wasn’t a thirty-year-old electivire standing across from Astraea on the battlefield. But all of Julia’s pokémon were incredibly well-trained. It made her the perfect kind of person to be an entry-level league leader. Her team wouldn’t steamroll every new trainer, but she wouldn’t just roll over to older trainers with well-established teams either. 

Which was really kind of a problem for Astraea. 

It didn’t matter, though. It was too late to change her mind. She _had_ to power through. She _had_ to win. 

She put Bast back on the field. 

• • •

It had been one in the morning and Astraea had been pulling old videos of her matches off her phone to show Julia in exchange for Julia showing off matches of her own, pressing against the limits of how much they wanted to give away of their fighting styles before their match together; Astraea suddenly viscerally aware she had no one else to share with or get critiques from. Julia had said “You adapt well,” musing over a video where Bandit faced off against somebody’s vaporeon and still won.

“I am sick of hearing that word,” Astraea had stated in return, even though the only place she’d heard it all month had been in her own head. 

Julia, to her credit, had blinked owlishly at Astraea for a moment, then cleared her throat and said, “Sorry. But it’s true. You barely pause at anything anyone does, you just move with it.”

A small, heavy pause had hung in the air, until Astraea had decided to just try and keep having a pleasant conversation. “Those matches, they aren’t really regulated. There aren’t as many rules. And once you’re used to anyone doing anything… Sure, you still get surprised, but you don’t get knocked off-balance anymore. You just learn to push through and make whatever you have work.”

“Did I ever tell you I got my start in req school cheerleading?” Julia had sat down her plate, balancing it on an unsteady stack of books on her coffee table.

“No, but it’s unsurprising.”

“It’s more like a contest than a gym match. Plus, you’re never directly against an opponent. And you’re a part of the whole show, too, which is the best part!” Her hand had been in the air, emphasizing the point, like it always was with Julia. “And a world away from what I do now. I did regular matches back then too, I mean, I spent a lot of time in a trainer’s school, so I had to, but it wasn’t my main focus.” She’d reached for her drink. “It’s a lot different, but, still, I think I get making whatever you have work.”

A softer pause as Astraea had considered just hitting play on the video. “Why are you a gym leader?”

“You’ve asked me that before.” 

“No, I’ve asked you how someone as young as you is a gym leader. Different question.”

“Oh.” Her nose had wrinkled in thought. “I was cheer captain for a couple of years in secondary school, but I was never going to keep doing it. There’s an electrical engineering degree hanging in my office for a reason, y’know? I applied for a league position totally on a whim. I wanted to be moral support for my friends at the tryout matches… And I kinda wanted to see how I stacked up compared to everybody else.” She’d picked her plate back up, found her fork again. “Guess I did pretty well, huh?”

“That’s an understatement.”

“You’re going to do pretty well, too,” Julia had said with complete confidence, woefully unequipped to know if that was the truth.

• • •

Julia’s geodude was out of the match, ice coating one of their arms after Melanie had managed to wrap her jaws around it. That was three of Julia’s pokémon down, at the cost of electricity crackling against Melanie’s shoulder and refusing to disperse. 

Julia’s next pokémon was an oricorio. A pom-pom style one, if Astraea had the species’ names straight, and she wasn’t sure she did. It looked like right, though, considering the way the yellow feathers on their wing tips were arranged. 

Melanie spent the small pause before the match properly restarted still trying and failing to shake off the effects of Geodude’s attack. 

With intricate movements, Oricorio collected electricity in their wings. Once enough was built up, they extended their limbs forward and launched a lightning bolt at Melanie. She barely managed to dodge it, held back by the crippling static. It hit the rubber wall instead, hard enough for Astraea to know Melanie couldn’t afford to step wrong.

Oricorio kept moving—no, dancing, the technique was called revelation dance for a reason—and the electricity built up in their wings again. They fired another bolt and Melanie just barely swerved out of the way. 

Between each blast, Oricorio had to build energy back up. It took them only a second or two, but that time was safe for Melanie. Oricorio could still retaliate then, but they’d have to break out of the dance to do so, which would give Melanie an even wider opening. 

Slowly, Melanie started to advance, while the uncomfortable fact that the outcome of this one match-up could easily determine the entire fight gnawed at Astraea. 

Oricorio broke out of their dance and leveled an air cutter toward Melanie that caught her in the side. She pushed through it, running now, and connected teeth to feathers. Oricorio delivered another air cutter with their free wing and Melanie was forced back, landing roughly on her side.

Julia used the opportunity to withdraw Oricorio. It was immediately clear she intended to eliminate Melanie with a different pokémon so Oricorio could rush through Astraea’s others without any trouble at all.

Melanie was still fighting to rise to her paws against the static.

• • •

It was the diagram that had caught Astraea’s eye that evening. It had to have been. The tiny, cramped type and her mother’s scrawling handwriting would have been completely unreadable in the moment. 

Astraea had asked, “What’s that saying?” as she’d balanced on a chair in pursuit of something on a high kitchen shelf while her mother tried to cook dinner and prepare a lecture all at once. The smell of something cinnamon hung heavy in the air.

“Don’t fall, Rae.” A hand had appeared an inch away from her back, ready to catch her if she stumbled. “If you’re going to insist on getting it for yourself, give it your full attention. An independent streak’s no good reason for getting yourself hurt.”

“But what’s it mean?” she’d insisted. “The poochyena.”

“It shows how paralysis affects a pokémon. See the lines here?” Her mother had pointed at some part of the page, the specifics of the diagram long since vanished thanks to the imperfectness of memory. “This is how the energy flow is altered in a pokémon’s body by a certain type of electric attack. This,” she’d said, turning the page, “is how the same type of pokémon move would affect a person.”

“Why’s it different?” Astraea’d asked, shrugging out of her mother’s reach and climbing off the chair, whatever prize she’d been after safely held in her hand.

“Because…” She’d gotten the look on her face that Astraea’s father always said Astraea’d ended up inheriting: head tilted just slightly, not quite lost in thought, but appraising the situation before her with gears obviously turning. Looking back, her mom had been trying to find a way to explain infinite energy and the molecular construction of humans to a child almost, not quite, ten. “People and pokémon are like time and space. Dialga and Palkia,” she’d said, evidently deciding a half-religious metaphor was the best way to get the point across in her household. “Dialga and Palkia need each other.” She’d reached up to touch the pendant, inscribed with scripture, that hung around her neck and was less than a year away from finding a new home hanging on Astraea’s father’s mirror instead. “And they’re a lot like each other, too. But they work a bit differently, so they have different rules.

“It’s the same for people and pokémon. We need each other and we’re a lot like each other, but we work a bit differently. Even if sometimes there’s pokémon that are a little more like people, like a hitmoncham or a machamp, and sometimes there’s people that are a little more like pokémon, like the fortune tellers at the market and the woman at the museum who offers to read your aura.”

“So, people and pokémon use different rules, too,” Astraea’d rushed to add in, always having to show off, be first; prove herself.

“Yep. So, pokémon’s moves affect us differently than they do other pokémon.”

And there had been a lot of nuance left behind there, like the difference between natural storm lightning and a manetric’s manufactured lightning when it came to hitting wingull and the way Astraea could remember her mother’s face but not what she wearing. 

But something had clicked, just a little bit. 

And it kept clicking, through req school and battling clubs and reading medical research from a school she no longer meant to attend and nights when Juliet aimed badly and hit Astraea with psychic energy instead of the target at hand.

Astraea found herself cataloging all the differences, keeping quiet track, sometimes with people (she had an ex and the girl was a little bit more psychic than most and there was a long list of things she handled differently than most, too) and mostly with pokémon (win or lose her gym battle, she would get to go home and record the way Juliet and Melanie reacted to a paralyzing force and that, at least, was something). 

• • •

Julia’s magnemite went down the first time Bast managed to wrap them in a wreath of fire and, without hesitation, Julia switched back to Oricorio. There was just two more of Julia’s pokémon and then the battle would be done. It was finally an even fight.

Astraea left Bast on the field. 

Oricorio started up its revelation dance as soon as the match officially restarted. The residual electricity on the tiles was helping them charge up faster. Astraea could see the sparks gravitating toward them, though it ran so close to tile it was hard to discern. 

Bast was able to dodge their attacks with much less difficulty than Melanie. She fired off flames from a distance, but Oricorio incorporated them all into their dance, leaping over and ducking around them with grace. 

Astraea was trying to find a way to break the rhythm when Oricorio did it for her. They swept up a massive gale with their wings that solidified into white energy and flew across the arena to knock Bast back as she landed from a jump. Oricorio sent a shock wave flying across the tiles and Bast didn’t have time to move, the electricity hitting her back leg and spreading across her. 

Astraea returned Bast to her Poké Ball, down to one pokémon. 

Oricorio was weakened, at least. But there was still the static pulling at Melanie’s limbs. 

Astraea was starting to despise the three second rule that governed almost every regional league’s fights—every time a switch was made, by either trainer and for any reason, both parties had to wait three seconds before resuming the match, ostensibly to allow the new pokémon to adjust to the field. 

She’d never had to follow it before, not really. It didn’t exist in most matches in Orre. People gave a second’s pause at the start of matches in Peridot, a happy medium. One single time, she’d done it for Fern out of misplaced courtesy, but that was barely a real fight.

And allowing the full three seconds in a close battle? It sure didn’t _feel_ fair, not to Astraea. If she could have just broken it, she would have Melanie across the arena in an instant, teeth meeting unguarded feathers before Oricoirio could start their dance again. But no, she had to wait and wait and wait, until the element of surprise was beaten bloody and left for dead in a ditch. 

• • •

Astraea had stepped into the trainer’s box closest to the entrance and asked, “No ref?” with arms crossed, still studying the panels on the ground.

“It’s technically not required,” Julia’d replied. “My usual’s out this week, so I figured we’d just forgo it. But if you want me to pull someone, I will.”

“It’s fine.” And it had been, and it still was. 

But what if that hadn’t been true? Astraea would have had no qualms about putting her foot down and sounding rude if the gym leader were someone she’d never met before. With Julia, though? What, was it just expected she could, would own up to not trusting someone who considered her a friend, who had already said they trusted her? Would Julia be the kind of person to take offense to that?

Why the hell did Astraea care if she was?

“Mmm, what’s all the stuff we’re supposed to say?” Julia had tossed an unexpanded Poké Ball from hand to hand. “It’s singles, six-on-six—”

“Six-on-four,” Astraea corrected. “Electric mono, no clauses versus mixed.”

“Either can make substitutions, it’s over when all of one side’s pokémon can no longer fight. Okay! Ready when you are!”

Astraea had paused to breathe, pretending she was selecting her starting pokémon. 

There was so much less formality surrounding the match than she was used to. So much less performance. She fought in packed-dirt colosseums and back-alley rings with audiences, not pristine, tiled arenas with empty bleachers. Even the matches she’d been having in Reborn were their own kind of show, with other battles running on the same empty lot and a pack of observers, though they were mostly just neighborhood kids reluctant to get involved for themselves. 

It was harder, much harder to get into and stay in the proper mindset at Julia’s. At the start, she’d felt completely off balance. 

Honestly, she’d have preferred it if there was less light. It would have lent a better atmosphere to the whole ordeal. 

She’d finally slipped Bast’s Poké Ball into her hand. “Ready.”

“Don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because we’re friends!” Julia had expanded the Poké Ball in her hand, Astraea mimicking her. “I have pride to uphold! …Ready? And go!” 

• • •

It took too long, but Oricorio went down. 

Astraea just had to get Melanie to last through the last match-up and that was it, Astraea had won. She was actually starting to do the thing she’d set out to do, even with all the delays and the trouble and—

One match. She could make it through one match. 

Julia’s last pokémon was her electrode. 

Astraea tucked down the sudden wave of anxiety. 

Three seconds. 

Electrode started spinning. Melanie jumped away as Electrode wheeled across the arena, the electricity only serving to propel them faster. They spun around, heading back in Melanie’s direction. She dodged again and this time they pulled up short, sending a nasty sound wave her way. That one she barely managed to avoid, the white blade landing where she had been standing only a half-second before. 

Electrode was fast. Too fast, especially when Melanie was still struggling from her clash with Geodude.

Melanie took a stumbling, running start toward Electrode and they spun out of the way. 

Astraea was surprised the whole expanse of tiles weren’t lighting up with electricity. She kept expecting Electrode to perform a whole discharge, frying everything standing on the circuit. Maybe it was just nerves, the fact that Astraea was _so close_. 

Melanie’s jaws made contact with Electrode and she was thrown off by a sonic boom sparkling with electricity. She rose again, clearly tired. 

Astraea didn’t want to redo this fight, didn’t want to feel like this wasn’t working, that her whole life wasn’t working; that she was doing all of this for nothing. She had to win this, just like she’d thought at the start. 

Electrode was bulkier and faster than most of Julia’s team, but that didn’t matter. Melanie wasn’t well-suited to the match-up, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t win, because Melanie was a lot like Bandit and that meant Astraea knew exactly what she was doing. If Electrode was hit hard, it would be difficult for them to retaliate, same as any other pokémon. Melanie just had to get in close and make sure any attack counted.

Melanie would only be able to take one or two more hits, then it’d be done, deemed “unsafe to continue,” and that wasn’t a rule Astraea wanted to break. It was probably the same for Electrode, but Julia was pushing, hard. She wasn’t going to give up the match just because Astraea wanted it and Astraea respected and hated that all at once. 

Melanie pushed through a sound wave and crashed into Electrode’s form. She did enough damage to trigger Electrode’s self-defense explosion and she was knocked back by the blast, firmly out of the match. 

But so was Electrode. 

• • •

Astraea’s first real fight had been for twenty-five dollars and, at thirteen, winning that for herself had felt like winning a fortune. 

And she had won. 

It had been with Bandit, because there was a never a chance it would have been with any pokémon but Bandit. They had been up against a kid two or three years her senior and he clearly hadn’t expected her to win. He’d had a scrafty or a toxicroak or something with fighting type in their blood.

She didn’t remember the match, not really, but she remembered the feeling of winning it. 

There had been this rush that came along with it, starting in her ribcage and pushing past the confines of her bones to spread to the rest of her body. It had been utterly exhilarating, as much as standing on the edge of a cliff-side in north Pyrite. Even better, because that time the feeling wasn’t about the potential of falling. 

It was about the fact that she’d fallen and landed _right_. 

And Astraea had decided to spend the rest of her life chasing that feeling with all her might.

• • •

“I actually thought I was going to turn it around there at the end,” Julia said, lazing in her office chair. 

“Almost did,” Astraea replied. She’d barely let go of Delilah’s Poké Ball since she’d reached for it at the fight’s end. She’d have to thank Seacrest later, buy him dinner for a week or a glass beautifly to join the ranks dancing along his shelves. If he hadn’t gently goaded Astraea into taking her, then that would have been it. 

A tie wasn’t the same as a win in the eyes of the league. 

Astraea said, “You fight well.”

“And I’m surprised you pulled that off,” Julia replied. “I mean that as a compliment! I thought you’d have picked up another pokémon or two in the past few days. I mean, you said you were good. You didn’t say you were ‘six-three a gym leader’ good.” 

“Well, I try.”

“You should fight Rini next,” Julia said matter-of-factly, pulling up the paperwork to submit for Astraea’s win. 

“Are they even letting people into Obsidia? Don’t you have to pass through there to get to her arena?” It’d be at least a few weeks before she felt up to challenging another leader, but, well, looking at Jasper and Beryl, that still didn’t sound like a wild question. 

“Mmm, I dunno.” Julia started typing. “But, if they’re not, and, honestly, they’re probably not, just go talk to Ame first. I told her you helped us out, maybe there’s something down there she’d want you to help out with too, and then… Well, if you’re there anyway.”

“I’m not particularly keen on helping with random disasters,” Astraea said. “But maybe.”

“If that doesn’t work out, I’ve got a few strings I could try and pull.”

“That’d be nice.” _Why are you helping this much?_ was what Astraea really wanted to ask, but… “And thanks for letting me come the other day, too.” 

“I don’t like not being able to tell you things. You’re my friend and you deserve to know!”

Astraea nodded and leaned back against the uncomfortable chair backing. 

“And submitted!” Julia pushed her chair away from the table. “Here.” She leaned down, too far to be rifling through a drawer. “Present time.” She placed a long, thin wooden box on the table and pushed it toward Astraea. “Open it.”

Astraea reached forward and undid the clasp. “…You shouldn’t have.” The inside of the box was covered with black felt. Julia’s gym badge was already pinned inside, resting in the top left corner. It was circular, a stylized yellow thunderbolt arcing vertically across the metal. 

“Where else were you gonna put them? I know one’s not too much, but fifteen? Sixteen? You can’t just leave those in a bag pocket, they mean something. This isn’t that fancy, but—”

“No, it’s perfect.” Astraea ran one hand along the side of the wood. There was so much more she wanted to say, but the words just weren’t there. She could barely sort out if she really thought of Julia as a friend, or if she was just clinging to the one person she had to talk to in Reborn. 

Telling her to her face just how grateful Astraea was for everything she’d done in the past three weeks? Unthinkable. It was too much.

“Thank you. Really,” Astraea said instead. It wasn’t enough.

Julia grinned, and seemed to think it was just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i decided that, actually, i wanted to restructure this entire chapter at 8 am on friday and also write two new scenes for it, because i am prone to bad decisions.  
> it was sure an experiment.  
> i like it better than just the straight fight. i really don't think i like writing in pluperfect as much as i ended up; it gets clumsy. the rewrite made it kinda super long, but it switches scenes fast enough idt it drags too much. it's a tad disjointed, bc i decided to do this like 36 hours ago.  
> the end result is fun, though, or, at least, i think it is.  
> maybe i'll use something like this again? we'll see.
> 
> ...aaand i actually still haven't 100% decided if i want to take a week off, so either i post on the 6th or i post on the 13th, we'll see lol. it'll be one of the two<3


	12. Chapter 12

The inside of the Grand Hall was different from the one in Astraea’s memory.

She hadn’t been inside since that first night, just as she’d been religiously avoiding the remnants of Grandview Station, but she had quietly turned her experience there over in her mind on more than one occasion. She knew what the hall looked like.

But standing just inside the doors again, _nothing_ felt right.

The Pokémon Center was too close to the front entrance. The Poké Mart was too far back, tucked into an alcove on the right. Both were wrongly sectioned off from the building proper, with glass doors and see-through walls separating them from the couches and chairs and magazine racks and TVs littering the open area stretching out before her.

Disoriented, Astraea pushed herself toward the restroom, which thankfully remained in its proper place. The door hit the trashcan as she entered; _that_ she remembered. It was one of the few things about that night that felt sharp and defined in her mind’s eye. 

She stood at the sink for a moment, running a hand against every Poké Ball in her clip, pulling out her phone and then pushing it back into her pocket; adjusting the angle her ponytail sat at. Each action felt bad. Not one was worse than looking into the mirror hanging above the countertop. 

It had taken three days from Julia’s suggestion for Astraea to push herself into talking to Ame. Three days, all spent kicking herself for not prying Ame’s phone number out of her instead of merely relinquishing her own.

Another person entered the restroom. Astraea exited.

She still felt uneasy.

Ame was exiting the restricted area at the back of the building and Astraea _hated_ it, because she would have to stand in the same room that much longer instead of being allowed to retreat into an unfamiliar office or cubicle. Because Florinia was talking to Ame and Astraea had liked her, before.

There was something heavy slithering inside her chest.

Ame waved at her, her hello lost to the gaping distance between them, though Astraea saw her mouth move all the same.

She spent the entire walk there on a search for words, finally settling on, “Ame, I was hoping I could talk to you, if you’re not busy?” It wasn’t exactly meant as a question, but it came out like one all the same.

“This is perfect timing actually! Florinia, maybe Rae could help you out?”

“That is not necessary,” Florinia said, eyes darting between Ame and Astraea behind her glasses. “Amaria and I are more than capable.”

“Oh, but you and Julia said she helped the other day,” Ame said. It drifted through Astraea’s agitation. Her mind derisively pointed out that, probably, only Julia had mentioned her at all and, besides, it didn’t get much clearer that the goodwill was revoked than “not necessary.” “One extra pair of hands doesn’t hurt, right? Honestly, it’d make me feel better if there was someone with a fire type around.” 

For a moment, Florinia looked like she was going to object further. Astraea felt the possibility hit her and found she very much minded it. The Florinia asked, “Astraea, are you free for the remainder of the day?” and Astraea couldn’t tell if she minded that more or less. It wasn’t even like she _wanted_ to help.

Especially if it came anywhere close to being Meteor-adjacent. All Mosswater had gotten her was her face on film for a bunch of terrorists. Nothing else. 

Why push her luck? Why want Florinia to want her around? Why care?

She took a breath.

“Yeah, I’m free.” 

“I know we spoke on it briefly, but you are aware the malignant floral life has continued to spread in Obsidia, correct?” When Astraea nodded, she continued. “Cause remains unknown; however, the source has been narrowed to Obsidia Park, which hosts the majority of floral species in the ward. If you are amenable to assisting, we will be attempting to isolate and either subdue or eradicate the source of this extraneous growth as quickly as possible.” 

Of course it was that. Of course Astraea wanted to be there just to know how things went down. Of course she wasn’t going to throw the opportunity to the side, not when it’d probably make her look like a coward and she’d probably never hear the end of it from Julia. _Less of a bomb risk than the last one,_ was the one thing her mind helpfully provided.

“I guess I could help,” Astraea said, not bothering to tuck away the less-than-gentle tone she wanted to use. “If you really want me to.” It was a worthless challenge, particularly while Ame was still standing there, but Astraea was grasping for anything solid to hold on to. If that meant trying to pick a fight, so damn be it.

Florinia passed right over it. “The police at the ward’s entrance will be instructed to let you through. Be at the park’s entrance at three. The gate on Main, to the right of Devon Corp. and Sweet Kiss. Do not enter the park prior to my arrival.”

 _I’m not incompetent,_ Astraea wanted to snap, but that really felt like pushing things. “I’ll be there.”

“Great!” Ame grinned. “Thank you, Astraea. It means a lot.”

“My departure is necessary,” Florinia added. “Things in Onyx must be attended to. Farewell.”

She made it three steps away before Astraea said, “Wait.”

Florinia actually stopped.

“Give me your number.”

“Why?”

“There are things causing structural damage to roads and buildings. Currently, if a problem occurs in the next hour and a half, to get in touch with you, I have to call Julia and then have her call you and then have her call me back. Then repeat ad nauseam. Seems pretty illogical, but maybe that’s just me.”

Astraea had to hurry to get down the sequence of numbers Florinia rattled off. There was a quickness to them, a small shift in tone that felt like miles for Florinia, and Astraea knew she’d won. She wasn’t sure what she’d won, but she had, and solid ground the width of a pinhead returned under her feet.

Then Florinia left and Astraea was in free fall again.

“So, what did you need from me?” Ame asked.

“Honestly, I was going to see if you needed help with anything. I think we just covered that.” 

“Seems so. Oh, I saw the paperwork for your match with Julia pass through the system. I’m glad things are going well on that front, despite everything else.”

“Yeah. Going well.” Astraea pushed away the urge to laugh, even a hollow, bitter one, because if she started, she wasn’t sure she’d keep it together. “I’m sure you’re busy, so I’ll head out.”

“If you ever need anything,” Ame said, trapping her in that place longer when what she needed was to _leave_ , “feel free to stop by. Even if I can’t fix it, I can try and point you in the right direction.”

Astraea fled with as much dignity as she could, forced polite reply and all.

• • •

Astraea recollected her thoughts at the small courtyard tucked between the Grand Hall and the stairs leading to Obsidia, with a drink pulled from one of the food stands parked there and Juliet unsuccessfully trying to make friends with the rockruff a table over. After half an hour, she felt steady enough to make the climb up to the Obsidia Ward. The officers stationed at the bridge let her by without excess commentary, their makeshift barrier of festival gates breachable by a determined child.

For the first few blocks, it was hard to tell something was wrong. Most storefronts still had open signs flashing in their windows. The few people on the streets seemed rushed and there was a palpable anxiety drifting through the air, but Astraea could have easily blamed the impression on her own lingering emotions were it not for how quickly Juliet begged back into her Poké Ball. She let Bast out instead and carried her in her arms, wary.

The first genuine bad sign wasn’t sitting in the middle of the street or on the steps of a building. It was tucked away in the dark recesses of an alley and Astraea only noticed it because she heard the sound. The distant, harsh screech of something tearing against metal, discernible only because the streets were so eerily silent. 

Bast pressed her ears flat against her skull and growled. Cautiously, Astraea headed toward the noise.

Thick, gnarled wood like tree branches sprouted from the ground in a corner, cracking through the cement and reaching for the sky. Broad green leaves grew in patchy clumps along it. Julia’s “frenzy plant” comment from weeks ago returned to Astraea’s mind, the picture it painted surprisingly close to reality. The wood had that stereotypical tint and pattern of accelerated growth, though it seemed to lack the focused drive of a pokémon controlling it.

As Astraea watched, it shifted. Just an inch or so, but the cracks in the pavement splintered out further as more wood heaved through the stone. In tandem, the metallic screech sounded. Bast whimpered.

Astraea stepped further down the alley, careful to avoid the twisting branches. She found it hidden around a curve in the pavement and tucked behind a stack of trash and boxes, wrapped around a recycling dumpster. A singular, pulsing vine, coated in thick thorns. The dumpster was caved in around it, the piece of plant matter having latched on and never let go, like a silicobra with a trapped heliolisk. Up close, Astraea could see ragged holes punched in the metal that were slowly being ripped further open as the thorns were dragged along by the squirming vine. 

It surged forward in its path, the dumpster crying out as more of it was pried apart. Astraea took a few sudden steps backward, cringing at the sound, almost tripping as more concrete crumbled under the force of the branches behind her.

She needed to see if Bast was capable of setting fire to it. It seemed so alive, though. What if it disengaged from the dumpster and turned to attack them? The vicious proof of what it could do to something sturdy, designed to be roughly manhandled and still perfectly function, was on display before her. She didn’t want to see what it could do to human skin if it tried. 

In the end, her choice was made for her. The next time the vines and branches heaved forward, the sound of breaking metal and concrete was drowned out by a barely muffled explosion in the streets behind her. Multiple car alarms went off at once, rising over the noise of people shouting and a flock of flying pokémon taking to the air in a wild panic.

For a moment, Astraea stood rooted to the spot, eyes unable to move from the thing twisting before her. _This is not a good day_ , was, laughably, the only thought she could pick out clearly enough to put words to.

The world snapped back into focus and she abandoned the alleyway, rushing toward the latest disaster.

The further she moved down Main, the more of the unnatural trunks and branches she saw. One had busted through a shop’s first-floor window, straight through the _O_ in the cracked remnants of the _SALON_ decal. People were clumped together in anxious circles, casting glances down the street, and the background buzz of conversation got louder and louder. 

Then came the first tell of damage: half a two-story building was just… gone. Its still-intact right half sat exposed to the elements, the furniture of the offices inside laid bare for everyone to see. Ahead of Astraea, people crowded the street, blocking her view of the rubble on the ground.

Over everyone else’s frantic, panicked noise, one voice was shouting about the apocalypse: _The end of days._ Astraea tried to find the source, scanning through the people on the stoops of buildings around her, but couldn’t find them. 

She pushed ahead, Bast clutched tight in her arms.

She froze, mid-crowd. 

It wasn’t that she couldn’t see the destroyed left half of the building because of the people, it was that she couldn’t see it because there was no destroyed left half to be seen. 

A jagged, gaping hole arced across the street, extending from under the wrecked offices to the sidewalk on the other side. Vines identical to the one in the alley slithered along the edges of the crack and crawled up the exposed half of the building. Others dangled down into the darkness; still more seemed to be spreading the damage further. As Astraea stood there, caught in some mix of horror and fascination, another chunk of asphalt was carved away and disappeared into the pit. If it made a noise when it hit the bottom, she couldn’t hear it above the crowd.

Only two blocks past the newly-formed entrance to hell, Astraea could see the park gates. A vine curled and twisted its way across the gateway arches, pretty red flowers blooming everywhere on it, covering the unsightly thorns and beckoning people forward. The things that waited inside held none of the same deadly sweet charm. A dense tangle of unnatural, overgrown trees and weeds and vines began only a few feet inside, forming a thick barrier. 

Another chunk of asphalt fell.

The pit had to open into the old rail lines stretching under the city, _so_ far beneath Obsidia. No wonder there wasn’t any ground to see, only a deep, unsettling black. Astraea backed out of the crowd quickly, the ground suddenly feeling unstable under her feet. She didn’t envy the officer and trainer close to the edge, their backs to the canyon as they tried to control the surge of the crowd. Falling there was a death sentence. Either your neck broke when you hit the bottom, or your leg did and you couldn’t make it back out anyway. 

The odds of people having been there when the ground collapsed was less than zero and all Astraea could think was, _At least it wasn’t me._ There wasn’t space to worry about anyone else. 

She needed to find another way to the park. 

Realistically, this was probably around the time she was supposed to call Florinia. _Hey, your street collapsed,_ was a pretty good reason to speak to someone.

Astraea was _not_ going to do that, though.

Even if Florinia liked her, or appreciated her help at Mosswater—and that was a big if!—she obviously hadn’t wanted Astraea at the park. She probably hadn’t ever really wanted her around at all. And that was understandable. It wasn’t like Astraea had proved herself in any real regard, at Mosswater or anywhere else. But it did mean that Astraea wasn’t going to be a child who couldn’t handle a little obstacle, even if said obstacle was a gigantic sinkhole in the middle of a street that had almost definitely killed people.

She walked a block back and found a crossroad to try. The first few streets running parallel to Main she tried to turn down were cracked halfway through or had vines starting to spread into the street itself. She didn’t want to try her luck with either of those things.

Eventually, the proper parallel roads stopped happening, replaced with a web of alleyways and the occasional street that fell into a dead end instead of continuing out to the other side. 

She was in the slums, then. She’d head stories, gleaned from making the mistake of asking too many questions in the Pokémon Center the few times she had visited Obsidia prior to its descent into a horror show set. Most were obviously exaggerated. All were unnerving.

Some odd number of turns farther into the mess of buildings, she spotted someone trying to climb over a dumpster in a street otherwise overrun by plant life. Astraea paused to watch the ordeal, tilting her head.

She wasn’t too proud to admit she jumped when the person called her name. And then they did it again. “Rae, could you give me a hand?”

Astraea managed to place the voice after a few seconds lost to confusion. Victoria. Astraea had barely given her any thought since her first night in Reborn. What a fun trick of time and space that she reappeared the same day she’d forced herself back to the building they’d first met in. “Sorry, I didn’t recognize you,” she called, hurrying down the narrow street.

“I figured.” Victoria was struggling to get a foothold on the side of the dumpster. On the other side of the vines crossing through the street, a pignite pulled at the squirming greenery with claws engulfed in fire. Astraea felt a spark of jealousy ignite as she realized they were the tepig Victoria had received from Ame, already evolved. “What are you doing here?” Victoria asked.

“Oh, y’know, the usual. Main’s a sinkhole.” Bast leapt from Astraea’s arms onto the dumpster’s top, joining Pignite in trying to ward off the vines long enough for Victoria to get across.

“Right, of course,” Victoria replied, matching Astraea’s nonchalance. A vine slithered up to grab Victoria’s ankle and she almost slipped trying to avoid it, just managing to catch herself by way of Astraea’s suddenly outstretched arms. 

The vines were faster here, more aggressive. Another tried to pull Victoria down as Astraea helped her climb to the top. “If you knew what was going on, Rae, then why did you come?”

“I could ask the same of you.” 

“I’ve been training at Apophyll with a friend. I came back to challenge Julia, but after seeing this, I think I’m just going to try and help in any way I can.” The lid of the dumpster creaked as she stepped across it and jumped down next to Astraea. “I hate being in this part of town. It’s not safe, even when there isn’t all of this happening.” She returned Pignite to their Poké Ball, then released them again on the correct side of the vines.

“Hasn’t looked that bad to me yet,” Astraea said. Bast jumped back down from the dumpster.

“Farther in you go, the worse it gets. And whatever you’re trying to get through Obsidia for is not worth the mess, trust me.”

“It is,” Astraea replied flatly.

“Well, be careful, then…” For a moment, Victoria looked like she was going to try and talk Astraea out of it for real. Instead, she just said, “I’m serious. Glad to see you in one piece, by the way.”

“Yeah. One piece.” At Astraea’s feet, Bast was messing with the branches growing next to the dumpster.

“And that seems to be going well,” she added, glancing down at Bast.

“Um—Oh, oh no, Bast, c’mon.” Bast was sitting proudly with a ripped-off, lifeless branch in her mouth, tail sweeping back and forth on the ground with excitement. “You are not using _mutant_ vine as a conduit.”

“I dunno, I think it’s kinda cute.” Victoria leaned down to pet the top of her head. “Definitely unique.”

“With mystery origins and, oh, yeah, _thorns_.” She looked Bast in the eye. “I’m happy you just decided you want to evolve and all, and you can keep it for now, but we’re gonna try and replace that when we get back to the apartment, yeah? ‘Cause I can see my future otherwise and it’s a lot of impaling my hand on, again, mystery thorns.”

Victoria laughed. “Good luck with that.”

“Let me dream.” Astraea looked at the dumpster and the cohort of vines still trying to overtake it. “This street go all the way through?”

“Close enough. It’s much better than the ones farther down.”

“Good enough.” If Victoria had made it through unscathed, Astraea could too. She managed to find a foothold and bolstered herself on top of the dumpster, staying close to the building wall and away from the crawling plant life. On the other side, the vines were snaking directly against the bottom of the dumpster. It was easy to see why Victoria had struggled to make it across. “Well, nice to see you.” She hopped down on the ground, pain briefly spiking up her legs from where her poorly-padded tennis shoes hit the concrete. Bast followed her across the dumpster, stick gripped tight in her jaws.

Astraea headed farther into the maze. 

The alien plant matter got worse before it got better. The vines stayed fast and so Astraea gave them as much space to do their business as she could. Thick, twisting branches broke through concrete and fought against metal and dominated wooden doors. Broken glass littered the street, sometimes from windows, sometimes from beer bottles; sometimes from other miscellaneous man-made problems. People were a scarce sight, though. The few in the street avoided Astraea. Everyone was too occupied with their impending doom to bother anyone else.

• • •

Three times, Astraea caught sight of a golden shard, glittering in the midday light, tucked on some obscure corner of the street. The first was nestled among sparse grass and flowers sprouting from an old crack in the sidewalk tile. She saw it gleaming, assumed it to be someone’s dropped phone or compact, and walked close enough to view it properly. It was shaped in a gentle arc, its gold so reflective it almost hurt to look directly at. Bast didn’t seem keen to get close to it, but Astraea crouched down with the intent to pick it up.

As she reached out, she swore she could hear a voice start in the back of her head. It whispered something in some language Astraea didn’t understand, didn’t recognize and she pulled back quickly, rising to her feet. It called her back, the voice fainter but still half-way there, just on the edge of consciousness. Astraea walked away.

“A sableye must have wandered up here,” she said, even though sableye’s didn’t work like that. “Or an… alakazam? It looked swift-like.” She bit her lip. “No, sableye.”

• • •

The second one tried to lure her to it with a trail of sparks. They started right in her path and when she accidentally stepped on them, there was no impact, no crunch, no breaking into smaller pieces. They simply vanished. The trail led to an alley overrun by malicious plant life, where another shard, diamond-shaped, lay in wait.

“Alakazam, then,” she said to Bast. “Though I’m not a fan of that theory.” Because it made Meteor the most likely perpetrator and who knew what would have happened if she’d touched the first one, then? 

A wealth of foliage could have easily plunged forth from the earth and consumed her where she stood.

She gave the second one a wide berth.

• • •

The third one sung for her, truly. It didn’t stand out like the others and she was, without warning, nearly on top of it when she quickly moved away from a vine in the street and nearly bumped against its resting place, an impossible perch on a shattered window.

Same voice.

Same unrecognizable language.

Same gentle pull.

Were they for her, then? That didn’t seem right, not if—But, she was sure it wasn’t speaking aloud. And it did want her to—

Astraea nicked her hand on the broken glass, pulling it back with a hiss, the song vanishing from the back of her mind as suddenly as it had appeared. “Oh, come on. We really had to add physical injury to the list of reasons why today sucks?” It barely bled, but it stung like hell.

She took a step backward, warily eyeing the shard. An arc with three spikes, this time. “And I am not touching you. Not until I know you’re not some bio-engineered trick of the mind meant to kill me.” She glanced down at Bast. “Don’t look at me like that. I haven’t lost it yet. And besides, if you get mutant vine, I get mutant light-show.”

An uneasy feeling tried to tug her back when she stepped away again.

But, she couldn’t…

It’d still be there once she was done with Florinia. She could take the time to make sure it wasn’t some concoction created by terrorists.

It would still be there.

She forced herself away, back on track to reunite with Main.

• • •

Slowly, the overgrowth started to recede and the streets opened up again. She’d made it to the boundary of Reborn, farther than she’d bothered to stray in her earlier trips to Obsidia. A glance over the railing along the sidewalk on the other side of the large street showed rolling hills and houses sitting outside the city limit. Sometimes the grass was green. Mostly, there was just bare dirt.

Astraea turned her attention north, packing the golden lures away in a box in the back of her mind, right next to the ones labeled _Family_ and _Security Footage_. There were police officers standing at a barrier right before Main. This one was constructed better than the last. It’d keep out the less determined intruders if there was no one there to guard it, at least. 

When she tried to approach, the officers insisted no one was allowed through. No amount of rational argument would make them budge and, after a fruitless minute, Astraea stepped away.

She pulled out her phone, finally caving in and running to Florinia. This was the exact reason she’d gotten her number in the first place. If anything, it proved her own point. 

It still felt like giving in.

She hit the call button under Florinia’s name and, after a slow minute of her phone refusing to change screens, a “No Signal” box popped up. A nearby rock went sailing down an alleyway, courtesy of Astraea’s frustrated kick. The officers weren’t going to just let her through, that much was clear. And she really didn’t want to venture back into the vine-infested parts of Obsidia, only to have to come back once she’d made the call.

That left south, where a stone bridge and a rickety sign reading _Coral Ward_ beckoned. Fog built up on the bridge, drifting in from the lake, obscuring her view past it as sunlight caught on the clouds. 

Astraea sighed and gave a final glance back toward Main. There was no way around the cops.

Into the damp fog she went, Bast cautiously trotting at her heels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gosh i'm so excited to add my own theorizing into this ~~and for e19 to eventually completely wreck it all in the best way possible~~


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "i wish it would snow here!" i naively said, like, two weeks ago. and now. and _now_ there's a winter storm warning for my city in _texas_ and, like, there's a lot happening rn, 'cause this ?  
> this just. doesn't happen.  
> i spent like all of sat prepping for tonight in case we just. lose power. or i can't get into work. or any of the other many things that could happen here.  
> jesus christ.

Astraea had read about Coral. She’d read about all of the city, really, cooped up in her hotel room those first two weeks and using her phone to familiarize herself with neighborhoods she mostly could have walked to, if only she’d have actually gotten up and tried. The knowledge she’d been able to pull from that particular endeavor was limited, good for only superficial generalizations, but at least it was something. She vaguely knew what to expect when walking up a set of stairs, passing through a tunnel; crossing a bridge.

This was what she knew: Lapis was rich. Onyx was academics. And Coral? 

Coral was dead.

Mist hung heavy in the air, so dense for the time of day, Astraea was convinced it was the work of the wingulls cawing in the distance, rather than the lake itself. Most of the buildings blended into each other, downtrodden houses and closed shops and barely-open bars all sporting the same old architecture and exuding the same worn-down energy. In the absence of people, signs, hung above storefronts, creaked at her in greeting.

It wasn’t a pretty picture, but it was a comfort. It was what Coral was _supposed_ to look like. There weren’t pieces she’d somehow misremembered into an entirely different area; there weren’t brand new cracks threading their way through the streets courtesy of things that didn’t belong and little pieces of light. It was simply, perfectly normal and Astraea felt most of the tension bleed out of her body in response, even as she continued fidgeting with her phone and started a diagonal weave toward the ports. 

The only building to really stand out was a two-story, dirty, gray marble construction. Astraea paused in front of it, eyes caught on the “Reborn League” plaque branded on its right side. The league logo was outdated. Still the same colors, still the general “X” formation, but ornamented and situated differently with respect to the words. The building had to be some relic left to rot from the old league days, either an arena or an administrative building. 

Astraea could probably climb the crumbling steps carefully, find a way to open the sliding doors, and find the answer. It wouldn’t take long, but… Her time to meet Florinia was steadily ticking closer. And, thinking with a clearer head, she shouldn’t have agreed to help—had known that even while agreeing—but she wasn’t just going to renege on the commitment.

She continued her meandering walk through the ward.

Besides, she should probably apologize to Florinia for being… Snippy. Irritable. Needlessly antagonistic. _Whatever_. And she didn’t want to do that, so maybe she’d manage to do something helpful enough at the park that whatever she’d said before wouldn’t matter.

Probably not.

Would there be a payphone somewhere?

For the second time that day, she was greeted with her name being shouted from nowhere. She glanced down the way she’d came, searching, until a clarifying “Up here!” brought her eyes to the second story balcony of a run-down motel. Cain, of all the people in the world, was leaning over the railing, waving down at her. “I hear it’s typically considered rude to leave someone hanging when they give you their number,” he said, grinning.

“I hear it only matters if you see them again,” she replied. “Sorry about that.”

“I’m sure we’ll find a way for you to make it up to me. Come up!” At his request, Astraea took the steps two at a time. Bast sprinted to him once they’d hit the landing and he bent down and scooped her into his arms, stick and all. “So, why has fate led you to my door?”

“It apparently wants to set the precedent that we meet whenever I have a particularly bad day,” she said, crossing the remaining distance between them. 

“Me too, this time. Guess that makes us a matched set.” He was still smiling as he said it, seemingly perfectly happy.

“Sure doesn’t look like you are.”

“Personally,” he replied, shrugging, “I don’t see the point in looking like it.”

“I,” Astraea replied casually, “think I have been looking too much like it.” Before he could say anything else, she held up her useless phone. “Got one of these that actually has a signal? I need to call someone.” 

“That’s Coral for you. Try again up here, the height helps sometimes.” He watched over her shoulder as the call failed to go through yet again. “No wonder. Congratulations on using the shittiest service provider in the entire region. Your prize is one free call from my phone.” He gently set Bast down and opened the door into the motel room behind them, gesturing Astraea inside.

It looked far more lived-in than her own studio. An open, empty suitcase was half-visible from the closet and a shirt had been cavalierly draped across the back of the armchair that Bast immediately jumped onto. Cups were haphazardly situated around the coffee maker. A tiny laptop was sitting, screen lit up, on the desk. But most notable to Astraea was the black meowstic curled up on the bed’s pillows, asleep, royal purple fur curling around their neck and tinting their ears. _Great minds think alike._

“Here,” Cain said, handing her a phone with a crack in the bottom right corner of the screen. “I’d say sorry for the mess, but I’m really not.”

“Thanks.” She stepped back outside, leaving the faded green door open between them. She dialed Florinia’s number, mildly amused as it turned into an active contact, labeled _florinia sevilla_. It made enough sense. He’d seemed like he knew Ame well, and Ame knew Florinia well.

When the phone stopped ringing, Astraea immediately started talking to halt any confusion in its tracks. “Hi, Florinia. Your street’s collapsing in on itself.” 

“I’m aware,” Florinia responded, seemingly unfazed. “You can go around.”

“I know. I _did_. The problem is none of your police officers are letting me back on Main.”

“Let me talk to them.”

“Not there anymore, and, if you hadn’t noticed, I’m on someone else’s phone. I don’t have service on this side of town and I hear that’s common. I don’t know if I can just walk back there, or if we’ll even stay connected if I try. Other solutions?”

After a quiet second, Florinia asked, “Where are you?” 

“In Coral.”

“There is someone who is supposed to be there who is going to meet me at the park, too. Let me call her and see where she is. You can come up with her. I’ll call you back. At this number?”

“I guess.” Astraea glanced back into the room. Cain had disappeared somewhere inside. “Maybe.”

“Three minutes. Okay?”

“Yeah.”

The line went dead. 

“Get it sorted?” Cain asked, reemerging into view.

“Kind of. Can I hang here for a minute?”

“Well, I need to go, so.” He grabbed a wallet and a set of keys from off the desk, shutting the laptop. “You can walk with me, though.”

“No objections.” She tried to hand him his phone, but he waved her off.

“Keep it if you’re gonna need it again,” he said, shaking the meowstic awake and recalling them to a Poké Ball.

Astraea trailed out the door after him, Bast right at her side, and followed him back down the stairs. “So, given that this is the second time you’ve saved my ass in some way, I feel like I owe you a bit of something.”

“Normally, this is where I’d ask for a date,” he said, pausing to pull shoulder-length hair into a bun, “but somehow I have the feeling that wouldn’t blow over well with you.”

“Clever.” He’d led her down by the docks, the oil-slick water blurred by a thin layer of mist. “Let’s say I owe you lunch.”

“Not the worst start to an idea.” Cain’s attention suddenly shifted toward the piers, even as he kept walking. “I’m gonna make a small detour.”

“I don’t know where we’re going in the first place,” Astraea said, amicably following him farther down the street. Like the rest of Coral, almost no one was present on the piers. There were just a few people near one boat docked further down, who were unloading stray cargo boxes, and some solitary figures conducting their own business. She couldn’t pick out where Cain was headed, despite her best efforts.

He paused at a crossroads, their only options to head further down to the isolated docks in front of them or turn and head left, back the way Astraea had came. “This is going to be very embarrassing if I’m wrong,” Cain said idly, then, before Astraea had time to ask questions, he shouted, “Amy!” 

One of the figures standing on a dock by a warehouse turned. “Oh my god, come here!” drifted across the space between them. 

“Not wrong,” Cain said with a grin, taking off in that direction. 

The woman phased into proper view through the fog as they grew closer. She was on the phone, looking at something past the warehouse, out on the lake. Teal hair cascaded around her face and down her back in light curls. She turned to them as they took the stairs down to the pier and her eyes lit up instantly, a smile breaking out on her face. “ _Oh_ , hold on.” She cut off Cain with a wave of her hand. “No, no. You too.” She seemed on the verge of laughter, though the joke was completely lost on Astraea. “Okay, let’s see. Blonde hair.” When she raised her arm to half-point at Astraea, the light from the fixture attached to the warehouse’s metal awning cut through the fog and glinted off her braided silver bracelet and the blue gem nestled in the metal. “The shirt’s, uh, dark green, not gray, but the jacket’s gray, so close enough. And, most, damningly,”—her focus shifted to Cain—“a person who knows you, could reasonably have your number, and who you definitely would have failed to put a contact name for, leaving only a string of texts from a year ago that we cannot even begin to guess the context of. Florinia, I think I hit jackpot.” She pulled her phone back a bit. “You are Astraea and I don’t sound like a complete lunatic, right?”

“One of those things is true,” Astraea said drily, handing Cain his phone.

She tilted her head back and laughed. “Score! Let me finish up here and we’ll meet you, okay, Rini?” She paused, Astraea vaguely able to hear a voice from the other side of the line. “Yeah. Oh, and it’s brown eyes and Cain LaRue’s number, by the way—Aw, you love me.” She dropped the phone from her ear. “Long time, no see, Cain.”

“Right back at you,” Cain replied, pocketing his phone. “What are you doing down here?”

“If you mean Coral, I was checking on the boat. If you mean the city, that’s a slightly longer story. But either way, I sure timed things great. Nice to meet you Astraea, I’m Amaria.”

Cain jumped in before Astraea could respond. “You’re making friends in high places, aren’t you?” He knocked his shoulder against hers, smiling. Astraea took a casual step back, just to make sure it didn’t happen again. She was not back in _that_ good of a mood.

Amaria laughed, ducking her head down. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that.” 

“Oh shit, that look says you actually don’t know. Astraea, this is Amaria _Fiore_ , one of the highest ranked gym leaders in Reborn!”

“And it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Yes, it is,” Astraea said, giving Amaria a more detailed once-over. There was a second, identical bracelet on her other wrist, and a clunky ring that looked, from a distance, to match Florinia and Julia’s Onyx class rings. Her nails were the same color as her hair and the wave designs on the custom Poké Balls hanging at her waist.

Amaria flashed an uncomfortable smile. “Y’know, Cain, it’s actually great you showed up, outside of saving me from searching for this one.” She took a few steps back onto the pier and Astraea decided not to point out how much she disliked being called _this one_ by a stranger, even teasingly. One point to Astraea for self-restraint, the first of the day. “Look, there’s a popplio trapped out on the lighthouse dock. They don’t want to get in the lake and I really don’t blame them. Any chance you’ve got poisons on you still?”

Cain took a few steps forward, Astraea hot on his heels. The lighthouse dock came into view from behind the warehouse and, with it, the popplio sitting forlornly on the edge. It cried out to them and Bast dropped her stick to talk back, dancing too close to the dock’s edge. Astraea leaned down and picked her and her stick up, careful to avoid its thorns. 

“They’ve been doing that since I saw them and they look young. I don’t have my seismitoad on me and I don’t want to put any of my others in this water.”

“No need, I’ve got it,” Cain said, already headed back to the street. He reached the sheer wall that was the edge of the sidewalk and jumped down onto the rocky shoreline below, stumbling a bit on landing. 

“Can you get back up from there?” Astraea called as he made his way closer to the lighthouse dock.

“Dunno,” he said cheerfully. He reached the closest point to the lighthouse and pulled a Poké Ball from a pocket. An Alolan muk emerged into the lake, vibrant sludge and crystal poisons peeking out from the water’s surface. Astraea didn’t bother to hide her distaste as Muk slunk across the water to retrieve Popplio.

After a moment, Amaria hurried to the place on the street where Cain had climbed down, standing anxiously at the edge. He was trying to convince Popplio to use Muk as their own personal ferry, but they seemed reluctant to do it. Astraea couldn’t blame them. No, grimer and muk weren’t completely responsible for the water quality, but the ones she saw swimming in the lake weren’t exactly helping the matter. Why should Popplio climb on the back of something whose counterparts were actively contributing to their current misfortune? How desperate did you have to be to put your faith in something like that?

Astraea glanced down at where the broken glass had nicked her hand. It was so shallow it’d stopped bleeding almost instantly, so clean a cut it’d barely hurt to begin with. Definitely less dramatic than she’d first made it out to be.

Still, though. If it hadn't occurred at all, what would have happened?

Amaria’s little cheer drew Astraea back to the scene in front of her. Popplio had taken a few steps onto Muk’s back and Astraea could feel the amorphous sludge shifting in her bones, even though she was standing too far away to see the green and pink move under Popplio’s flippers. 

Cain and Amaria were talking, too quiet for Astraea to hear from the pier. As Cain picked Popplio up with one hand and recalled Muk into their Poké Ball with the other, she headed to hover near Amaria. “The little guy seems okay,” Cain said as she approached. “Here, one of you take him.” He held Popplio up expectantly. Amaria knelt and leaned forward to grab him, balancing against the spaced poles that served as a railing, meant more to prevent the descent of vehicles than the descent of people or pokémon.

After Popplio was safely on the street, Cain tried to climb back up via the highest point of the rocks. When it became evident he wasn’t going to make it on his own, Astraea set Bast down and knelt to help him. Loose gravel pressed into her bare skin as she gripped his hand. He found footing on a crack in the brick wall and used it to leverage the rest of his ascent. 

“Thanks, Cain,” Amaria said as Astraea pulled him back to his feet.

“I’m happy to help,” he said, brushing away gravel. “Rae, unless I misinterpreted something earlier, you have everything sorted, right?”

She glanced at Amaria, still cradling Popplio in her arms. “Think so.”

“I need to head out then. Was nice seeing you, Amy.” Cain took a few steps back toward the ward proper and Popplio cried out, reaching for him with a flipper. 

“Aw, hold on,” Amaria said. “I think he’s taken a liking to you. You should take him with you!”

Cain paused. “He’s a cutie, but you’re the one with a primarina.”

“Oh, come on, you have way more freedom with your team than you did this time last month. Live a little! And you guys would be so cute together. Don’t you think, Astraea?”

“I have no stake in this.”

In a sing-song tone, holding Popplio out to Cain, Amaria said, “I’ll take him if it doesn’t work out.”

“Okay, okay.” Cain took Popplio from Amaria. “I’m probably going to end up calling you for advice, though.”

“And I’d be happy to help.” Amaria cradled Popplio’s chin in her palm. “I knew no one could resist that face.”

Cain shifted Popplio in his arms. “Okay, I’m headed back to Byxbysion. If I don’t handle a certain something out there, and fast, I’ll never live it down.”

“Oh!” Amaria clapped her hands together, bouncing on her heels. “Real quick! How’s Aya doing? Ame told me. Is she excited?”

Cain looked uncomfortable suddenly, his eyes flitting to Astraea and then back to Amaria. “I wouldn’t use the word ‘excited.’ …Or anything in that neighborhood. Maybe I’ll tell you when I talk to you about this guy. Now, though, I’m already running late.” He was gone quickly, Popplio still nestled snugly in his arms.

“Those two will be a great pair,” Amaria said to break the ensuing silence. “Which is a relief. Lots of pokémon have been suffering with the lake the way it is.”

“Grimers seem to be thriving, though.”

“I think they migrated from Byxbysion out to here. It’s a shame.” Amaria tapped a shoe against the pavement. “We need to get back to Obsidia. I don’t want to leave Rini hanging.” She started back toward Coral’s entrance. “I hope this doesn’t come across as rude, but why are you helping us out? I got the impression this morning that just Rini and I were working on this. Everyone else Ame and Rini considered were too unqualified, or busy elsewhere.”

 _Oh, don’t you worry, I’m unqualified too._ “I helped out Julia with some things recently and I just happened to run into Ame and Florinia earlier. Ame asked me to come. I don’t think they even considered me before.”

“Well, I’m always happy to have one hand more.”

At that, all Astraea could really do was hope that there wasn't anything too awful awaiting them in the park’s middle. She didn't want Amaria relying on her, nor did she want to be forced to rely on Amaria and Florinia.

The police officer standing at the gate, the one who had refused to let Astraea through before, waved at Amaria as they approached. He didn’t recognize Astraea, or didn’t bother showing it if he did, and she shouldn’t dislike him for that, couldn’t, but she did anyways. Maybe it was her discomfort from earlier rearing its head once again, or maybe how completely sure she was that, actually, she should have trusted her gut and not agreed to join in. Maybe the two things were one and the same. 

Either way, she was important, and she was supposed to be there, and he should have paid enough attention to remember her. Instead of voicing that, Astraea kept her mouth shut and followed Amaria back into Obsidia proper, feeling more and more like she was just trailing around after people like some lost lillipup.

As they approached Main, things only got worse. The gaping hole Astraea had been forced to avoid was located down the road, people crowded around it on both sides still, trying to wrap their minds around something so impossibly destructive for what it otherwise appeared to be. Sections of the road leading north were cracking and crumbling. So was the ground beneath her and Amaria’s feet, despite their best efforts to stay away from anything unstable. Amaria stopped trying to make small talk, focusing instead on getting them through. 

The park’s inside was still obscured by overgrown bushes and vines. A dome seemed to be forming as the growing plant matter connected existing trees to each other and closed the spaces normally present between them. As Astraea watched, a bench near the park entrance, trapped within its gates, lost its last few slats of wood peeking out into the air to the mass of vines engulfing it.

Florinia was standing too close to the fence to be considered safe, observing as the vines on the metal harshly pulled it into the shape of their pleasing. Amaria called out to her, waving, and she turned to watch their approach.

“You could have gone north,” was the first thing Florinia said to Astraea once she was in earshot.

“Don’t say that,” Amaria said before Astraea even had the chance to respond. “It’s earthquakes all the way down.”

“Was that meant to be a ‘turtles all the way down’ reference? ‘Cause, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think it really works,” Astraea said.

“It wasn’t. …But if it had been, it totally would’ve worked.”

“No,” Florinia said, “it—” She stepped forward toward Amaria, almost bumping into her, as the mass of vines tangled on the fence shifted and one disentangled from the horde to spring toward them. Amaria had a Poké Ball out quicker than Astraea or Bast could react, her vaporeon not even hesitating before it caught the vine in a beam of ice. 

Completely encased, it broke off from the rest and hit the ground, some of the ice cracking on the pavement. Astraea could see the thin slivers of vine not coated slowly, noticeably darkening. 

“Oh my god,” Amaria whispered. Then, a little louder, “Oh my god.”

There was complete silence between the three of them.

Astraea could hear sirens in the background.

“Isn’t—” Astraea paused to clear her throat, eyes fixed on the deadened vine. “Isn’t ‘turtles all the way down’ supposed to be a spiritual reference? Or at least, it was originally?”

“Infinite recursion.” Florinia took another step back, behind Amaria.

Amaria beckoned Vaporeon closer to her side. “Don’t look at me, I don’t know. Tania’s used it before; I wasn’t expecting to have to get into the why of it.”

“Wow, none of us are on the same page.” Astraea flicked a nervous glance at the park entrance and the red flowers still curling around it. “Amazing.”

There was another minute of silence, wherein Astraea was reluctant to suggest they actually start doing anything. Finally, though, Amaria said, “I don’t think there’s a point in waiting. Let’s just go.” 

Without further preamble, she walked back to the park entrance and stepped through the gates, ducking under a hanging row of vines and heading straight into the mouth of the beast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sdksj next week is gonna be weird too, 'cause, presuming i don't freeze to death, i'll be out of town and who knows when i'll have my laptop. we'll see what happens.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> had to take an impromptu break 'cause, hey, texas, what the hell was that? 50+ hours without reliable power, jesus christ.  
> back on schedule now, though.

The further they walked inside the park, the more comfortable Astraea became with straying from the group and venturing into vine-dense pockets on her lonesome. All three of them were capable of tearing apart the living flora: Bast burned away thin layers of vine for Astraea; Vaporeon froze large swaths of growth, sending them buckling to the ground under their own weight, for Amaria; and, the first time Amaria stepped away to follow Astraea, Florinia’s ferrothorn rose to the occasion for her, inelegantly swatting away wood with the metal disks at their disposal. So, when nothing sprang out to meet them right at the gate, or the first turn, or the next, Astraea settled into a confidence that they would all be fine if they occasionally disappeared from the other’s eye sight.

Amaria disagreed. It made her concerned, she said, that they met no resistance past the aggressive vines they’d already seen on the streets. 

It made Astraea concerned, too, just in a very different way—It felt like Mosswater.

She had been suspicious from the start that Meteor was involved, and Florinia and Amaria clearly were as well. The goal on both sides in the factory had been information. Now, on the side Astraea had made herself a part of, it was destruction. What would Meteor’s be? The same?

And if it was, would they even find anything? The possibility that something had been set off, started all of this, and then removed felt horribly real. Vines that grabbed for everything, trees and flowers that weren’t meant to exist, and _nothing_ in the center. 

Nothing to hurt them. Nothing for them to stop. And nothing anyone could do.

For her part, Florinia seemed keen to stick to the concrete track that started at the park’s entrance, but kept pausing for long moments to examine the bushes and trees around them, natural and unnatural alike. At Amaria’s whispered questions, Florinia gave only short responses, so short she kept losing Astraea’s attention. Every time that happened, Astraea drifted off the path and into the pockets of vine-light earth that seemed to form dead-end trails through the trees. Once Amaria realized, she would pull away from Florinia, trying to keep both of them in her sight at once.

Amaria was asking Florinia about growth rate or growth patterns or something else that would have been interesting if there was any actual information being exchanged and Astraea took her cue to step off the path, laying a hand against a tree trunk for balance as she stepped over a wooden growth. 

She’d lost her sense of direction right when the gates had vanished from their view. For all she knew, the sidewalk curved back in a circle, and they would shortly be deposited back at the front.

She paused mid-step, unable to fully stand without hitting her head against one of the crisscrossed branches above.

Though its light was dimmer, it was bigger than the tiny shards she’d seen on Obsidia’s streets, suspended in a tangle of vines set softly aglow. Two golden bars, arranged in an X, a circle replacing the spot they should have crossed and curved bars connecting the top and bottom of each side. 

The shape felt familiar.

There was no pull in her bones, no voice in her head, and Astraea refused to walk closer, worried it would spark something to start again. She turned her head to call back to Amaria, to beckon her over and confirm that she wasn’t just imagining things.

“Astraea.” Florinia’s voice was louder than it’d been since they’d first stepped through the gates.

“I’m here.” She started retracing her steps, weaving back through the woods again.

“Where’s Amaria?”

“Wasn’t she still with you?”

She found Florinia just in time to see her mouth turn down. “I thought she had gone to you.”

“There’s ice here,” Astraea said, nodding at a broken patch in the surrounding jungle. “Let’s find her before we really get separated.”

Florinia’s ferrothorn took point, Astraea and Bast trailing behind and peering between the foliage.

“I didn’t think the park was this big,” Astraea said after a few moments of following broken branches and traces of ice. 

“You are just perceiving it as larger than it actually is.” Florinia dropped back beside her. “You can’t see the exit anymore, and we’re moving slowly. It’s internal perspective, plus the density of the extraneous plant mass.”

“Bullet-proof logic. Very appreciated at the moment.”

In the distance, there was a deep, rumbling sound that lasted a mere second, barely able to be heard over the creaking, shifting wood. Maybe a pokémon, maybe a machine. Florinia didn’t pause at it, maintaining the same steady pace. 

The grass turned back to solid concrete underneath their feet as the same sound occurred again. This time, Astraea was sure it was a pokémon. It had the timbre of something distinctly living, distinctly morose. Astraea was suddenly, blindingly sure Amaria had heard it in the distance and wandered off to help, thinking it was closer than it was. It was a relief, that they would just turn the corner and find Amaria with some injured creature. 

It was a relief, right up until they heard the voices.

“I did tell him this was the likely outcome.”

Florinia went still as the voice drifted to them from somewhere up ahead. Astraea made it to her side, the ground sloping downward beneath her feet, and paused as well.

“There’s too little existing flora—Guys, Tangrowth’s _going_ to hurt themselves if we keep pushing them.” There was a sudden jump in tone and inflection between the two sentences, enough that Astraea would have assumed two people with a remarkably similar voice if not for how smooth the transition between them was.

“Wasn’t that a given?” That one was definitely a new voice, though. Higher. Half-familiar, but Astraea couldn’t place it. “Besides, we have a more pressing problem here.”

Amaria’s trail clearly led forward, straight to these people. Florinia took a step to the side, reaching out to lay one hand on Ferrothorn’s body and lifting her other, and Astraea realized she was mapping out the best path for Ferrothorn to quickly make it through the brush. 

“We know. And Lumi’s right. Even if we can increase the output, I don’t know if Tangrowth will be able to handle it.”

“Excellent,” the higher voice replied, drowned in sarcasm.

“I _told_ you people would get here too soon on this timeline. If you’d made this thing go faster—Hush, Zero! Eve’s doing her best! And so is Tangrowth.” Astraea reached out to touch Florinia’s sleeve at _people_ , taking the moment to reassure her that, when she moved, Astraea would follow. It was what she was here for. No backing out this far along.

“Are they? I _know_ there’s a better way to optimize this, so find it, or let me.” 

“You don’t know anything.”

Florinia picked that moment to move.

The downhill slope steepened, then flattened out suddenly into a clearing ringed with trees. Astraea stopped at the tree line, freezing. Of course the voice had been familiar. The woman from the storage room in Mosswater, Eclipse, stood right there in the middle of the clearing. She spun around at their sudden appearance and startled at the sight of them, backing up into metal and vine and—and Tangrowth.

A Tangrowth stood there, towering above them all.

Astraea’s brain caught up to her eyes, fully registering where the metal belonged in the scene before her. It sank beneath Tangrowth’s armor of vines, disappearing deep into the dark space where their flesh was hidden. The steel climbed their body in an archaic skeleton, extending to their arms and encircling their head like a crude crown.

There were lights flashing on the base of the machine, sunk into the ground.

Florinia’s ferrothorn moved forward quickly, taking advantage of Eclipse’s surprise.

“Wait, Rini—” _Amaria_.

Just before one of Tangrowth’s disks hit the machine’s metal, vines detached from Tangrowth and swirled around Ferrothorn, halting their momentum and forcing them to the ground. As they tried to right themselves, more vines sprouted from the earth and caged them down.

Astraea risked a quick glance to the left and saw Amaria. Thin, crisscrossing vines were wrapped around the trunk of the tree she stood by and her wrist was snared between the two. Vaporeon was unconscious a few yards away, entangled in vines just like Ferrothorn. Her Poké Balls, clipped together, were dropped by her feet. _Why isn’t she—_

The vines started to rip through the earth again, driving a line between Astraea and Florinia. Bast caught the ones that grabbed for Astraea in fire as she backed further against the trees. Florinia was pushed toward the right side of the clearing, too far away for Astraea to do anything, even when a vine caught her leg and pulled her to her knees. She tried to rise, but the vines didn’t recede, and she seemed to settle for her kneeling position.

Tangrowth made a pained noise, the same sound they’d heard before, and the vines stopped moving forward before they reached Astraea or did worse to Florinia. There was the sound of footsteps on metal. A person emerged from behind Tangrowth, one gloved hand gliding against the metal encircling them. “Way to be useless, Eclipse.”

“So, what’s the grand plan now, Zel?” Eclipse asked, arms crossed as she stepped around vines and away from Tangrowth.

At least there were only two people. …That Astraea could see. They’d been throwing around other names before.

“She’s new,” Zel said, in lieu of answering the question, nodding in Astraea’s direction.

“No, she’s not.” Eclipse’s Poké Ball had found its way into her hand. “She was in Mosswater.”

“I don’t recognize her, though. I recognize them.”

“Why does it matter? Let’s just deal with them, first.” Eclipse’s rockruff materialized on the grass, hackles raised. 

Bast stepped forward to meet them.

This was fine. This, Astraea could handle, contrary to Eclipse’s apparent convictions. 

But Tangrowth? Gods knew exactly what that machine was doing, but one thing was clear: Tangrowth was much more dangerous than normal.

One of Rockruff’s attacks hit Bast, sending her tumbling down on the grass. Astraea was too distracted by Tangrowth, was too slow getting to Melanie’s Poké Ball. 

There was the buzz of a Poké Ball opening and something heavy hit the grass outside Astraea’s field of vision. The ground next to Rockruff broke apart, spikes of cracked earth shooting up and catching them at an angle hard enough to send them to the ground at Amaria’s feet. As they struggled to rise, thick vines a pale brown encircled them.

Florinia’s grotle, their mottled shell laced with desert brush, placed themselves between Bast and Tangrowth. 

“Very helpful,” Zel sniped as Eclipse fumbled to return Rockruff to their Poké Ball before the vines could lace themselves tighter.

“Can one of you deal with that Tangrowth?” Amaria called as Grotle’s vines rescinded from around her feet. “I’d be a lot more helpful if I had my wrist back.” Astraea didn’t know how she could sound so calm.

“Little limited here, too,” Florinia said. The vines still hadn’t let go of where she’d tangled against her leg. “Grotle, see what you can do.”

The lines on Grotle’s geometric shell glowed white as the ground around the machine slowly started to crack open.

Zel quickly stepped off the splitting grass and back onto the metal. Eclipse was less sure on her feet and, for a second, Astraea was sure she’d get caught in the expanding gashes. But Tangrowth, despite their slow reaction, didn’t hold back, opening their mouth and discharging a stream of acid.

Florinia recalled Grotle just as the purple sludge would have hit them. The grass they’d been standing on withered and died in seconds. The trees surrounding the clearing creaked and shifted, the branches vibrating and sending leaves raining down on Astraea’s head. She watched the vines still layering the ground around Florinia twist tighter, rise further, trying to cut off access to her Poké Balls. 

If Florinia couldn’t manage to get another pokémon out… It was just Astraea left. Just Astraea and this machine and these people. Just Astraea and she had no idea what she could do. 

She could still stall, though. Stall, until she figured it out, or Florinia and Amaria could.

She took a breath, steadying herself, as Tangrowth’s vines continued to shift. “Wait.”

Zel paused, halfway off the machine’s base.

“I want to know what that—that thing is.” Bast could aim for either the metal or for Tangrowth themselves, but there wouldn’t be time for both. Would taking out the machine be enough to make the vines recede? Probably not. Or, at least, it wouldn’t be quick enough. 

“The pulse?” Zel’s head tilted to the side, the inflection of their voice shifting yet again.

Maybe Bast could reach Florinia or Amaria. She wouldn’t be able to burn the vines with enough precision and Astraea didn’t want to risk hurting them, but if it was the only option she had, she’d take it.

“Don’t talk to her,” Eclipse said from where she’d retreated behind Tangrowth after the acid spray.

“How does it work?” Astraea asked, keeping her eyes on Zel and pointedly ignoring Eclipse. Bast dropped her stick, pacing warily, ready to move at a moment’s notice.

“It’s a simple hybridization-amplification mechanic.” Zel didn’t expand further, but Tangrowth didn’t move either.

“But what does it _do_? Besides let Tangrowth slowly suffocate city dumpsters.”

Zel’s mouth opened and Astraea was so sure she’d get another fairly pleasant, if condescending, reply. Instead, she got a morbidly excited, “Why don’t you find out?”

One of Tangrowth’s hovering vines shot toward Astraea. She stumbled backward into the closest tree, just out of the vine’s path, to the tune of Eclipse’s “Thank you, Zero!” Bast spun out of the way of the vine that came for her, shooting out a burst of flame that set the tip ablaze, and it recoiled from her in shock. 

Tangrowth took their time between attacks, telegraphing their every move, and Bast didn’t have much trouble getting out of the way. Provided they didn’t resort to acid again, she could probably keep dodging forever. 

Astraea backed against another tree, stepping onto the roots. Tangrowth’s body was covered in layers of vines, a nigh impenetrable fortress, but if Bast could hit them where the vines thinned, she could potentially do enough damage to hurt them. 

There was a sharp pain on her lower arm that only increased when she tried to yank it away from the trunk in surprise. Astraea looked down to see the thick vine wrapped around her skin. She could feel it pulse against her, the thorns on it poking through the fabric of her jacket. Cursing, she got her other hand to the clip on her belt, unlocking it and letting her Poké Balls hit the ground in a scattered mess before Tangrowth could fully immobilize her. “Bast, take out Tangrowth. Aim for the eyes.”

After a moment’s pause, Bast complied.

“Melanie, activate.” Melanie’s Poké Ball flashed opened at her voice. She immediately tried to help Astraea, tugging at the vine with her teeth. “No, go help Florinia.” Florinia, who was so much more useful here than she was. Melanie whined in protest. “Ice fang. Go.” Melanie reluctantly left her, leaping over the vines on the ground to get to Florinia.

“Bast. Bast, hurry _up_.” Astraea was all too aware of how desperate she sounded, even when trying to keep calm. She could feel blood running down her arm from where a few of the thorns had broken skin. Her heartbeat was too loud, pulsing in her head.

Bast turned back to look at her, then darted away from Tangrowth and headed for the discarded, thorny stick in the grass. She scooped it up in her jaws, narrowly avoiding Tangrowth’s next vine, a white glow starting at her paws. It slowly encased her, her form shifting and stretching, as she jumped to avoid Tangrowth’s next attack. She landed nimbly on two legs, fully evolved, and the glow softened and dissipated.

She shifted the stick into her paws and the vine encircling Astraea’s arm erupted into flames. She pulled away just as the first licks of fire started to press into her skin. Moving away from the tree, Astraea watched Bast as she pressed the palm of her other hand against the wound. 

The base of the machine was the next thing to go up. That time, Astraea caught the sight of the stick’s tip starting to burn and then immediately dying out as Bast transferred the fire onto the metal at Tangrowth’s feet. Astraea heard Eclipse curse as the metal skeleton caught. Tangrowth tried to pull away with a wail, but the metal bound them in place.

Zel had a glaceon out of a Poké Ball in seconds and spraying a ring of water at the metal. They put out one small fire, only for Bast’s flames to jump onto Tangrowth themselves. Some of the vines in the forest seemed to shrink backwards, as if Tangrowth was trying to pull them back to insulate themselves.

Astraea missed the first thing Zel said, but heard the next: “Zero, next time, rather than showing off the project’s keystone, let’s fight with our own pokémon from the start.”

Eclipse was moving to the center of the clearing, closer to Astraea, to get away from the fire and smoke. “You know what? Y’all can explain this one to him,” she said.

Tangrowth had fallen unconscious, their body still held up by the metal warping under the heat of the flames.

“Stop yelling at me! The pulse should have been able to handle this!” Zel returned glaceon, pulled out another Poké Ball, the tone of their voice shifting yet again. “Eclipse, come on. It’s worse to stay here at this point.”

Astraea heard movement from her left and a primarina exploded into reality—Amaria had pulled free of the vines encircling her wrist and regained her pokémon. As Primarina prepared themselves for an attack, Zel opened their Poké Ball to reveal an alakazam.

_Wait, Mosswater—_

Astraea turned away as the clearing exploded into blinding light from Primarina. When she looked back, Zel and Eclipse were gone.


End file.
